Colony: A New Business Model for Research and Development

Since 2007 the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has made a significant commitment to leveraging CubeSats to enhance Research and Development activities. SmallSats, CubeSats in particular, allow the NRO to perform research and development at a rapid pace, enabling us to mature a broad spectrum of new technologies for future systems while accepting higher levels of risk. Technology maturation can be conducted quickly and economically using CubeSats, due to their low cost, rapid development cycle, and the potential for more frequent launch opportunities. CubeSats provide the opportunity to keep up with Moore’s Law, advancing on a six to twelve month development cycle. On-orbit testing provides bigger systems with higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) components, lowering program developmental risks and cost growth. Examples of near-term technologies to be proven on CubeSats include advanced multi-junction solar cells and carbon nanotube batteries. These technologies promise to improve overall size, weight, and power of future systems. Recent investments in CubeSats provide the NRO access to innovative methods to rapidly exploit technologies to address changing needs, while offering a new business model for adapting new technologies to tackle hard problems in the future