Small Orbited Payloads: A Demand Assessment

Experimenters and sponsor organizations continue to express interest in flying small, often low cost payloads to orbit. Government procurement in the last several months have focused attention on prospects for expanding commercial activity in space. The interests and activity span many disciplines and applications, so a payload may be anything from an experiment apparatus that requires full spacecraft support (power, pointing, thermal protection, etc.) to a complete, self-contained satellite. Small packages fly now as secondary payloads on Shuttle or other large vehicles. Soon, however, these payloads may have several new options for rapid, low-cost access to orbit. The stated interest by experimenters and the development activity by launch services vendors raises questions about the size and nature of this demand. How large is the demand? How soon will it evolve to a sustained level of activity? To what degree is U.S. government participation required to assure development of U.S. space commerce