Learn space by doing space: a hands-on approach to cadet satellite procurement at the Air Force Academy - Military Space Programs

Program Manager, July-August, 2002 by John Martin, Jerry Sellers, Steve Green

In 1997, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and Management Darleen Druyun announced 11 "Lightning Bolt Initiatives," designed, among other things, to develop superior acquisition strategies. Lightning Bolt No. 10, "Reducing Cycle Times," aimed to reduce the time from requirements definition to contract award. In this article, the methodology used to apply this initiative to the U.S. Air Force Academy Small Satellite (SmallSat) program is discussed.

SmallSat Program

The SmallSat Program Office, located at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, Colo., gives cadets he opportunity to "learn space by doing space." Led by an interdisciplinary team of military and civilian cademicians from three academic divisions (engineering, basic sciences, and social sciences), top cadets are designing, building, and testing a nano-satellite (extremely small). This nano-satellite, dubbed FalconSat-2, is currently ahead of schedule for delivery to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in summer 2002, with a launch date scheduled on the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-114) for Jan. 16, 2003. Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, a former Associate Professor at the Academy, will command the Shuttle, while Air Force Lt. Col. James Kelly, a 1986 graduate of USAFA, will pilot the Shuttle.

The Small Satellite Program is a two-semester course taught and administered by the Department of Astronautical Sciences. While working with the interdisciplinary team, cadets have the opportunity to gain real-world experience with satellite design, assembly, integration, testing, and operations. Their activities mirror those of a traditional program office in almost every aspect except size.

The Drivers

What drove the development of this capstone course? One very obvious reason was to give cadets an experience whereby they could culminate three years of rigorous core courses from the four academic divisions and apply the various theories learned to a real-life situation with scenarios similar to those encountered by Air Force officers. Whether the cadets become pilots, scientists, program managers, or contracting officers, many of these future officers will hold positions involved in the design and procurement of major weapons systems--the FalconSat-2 program uniquely prepares cadets to take on these responsibilities.

In the FalconSat-2 program, a cadet program manager is selected who has "cradle-to-grave" responsibility for program completion. Also, other cadets perform functional duties such as engineering, documentation, production, test, logistics, and program control.

Another reason for the adoption of this course is that FalconSat is ranked 21 of 34 essential programs by the Department of Defense Space Experiments and Review Board (SERB). The Air Force office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) contributes funding to FalconSat because of their keen interest in the payload, which is designed to measure and record plasma depletions in the ionosphere. The FalconSat program depends on generous funding from the AFOSR and the Space and Missile Systems Center Space Test Program (SMC-STP). The team also benefits from significant access to resources at the Air Force Academy, including lab supplies as well as machine and electrical shop support and expertise.

Challenges

FalconSat-2 faces challenges that are not faced by traditional acquisition programs.

Turnover

First, the cadet team is composed mostly of seniors ("firsties"). As a result, new students have to literally fight a steep learning curve each academic year, while the interdisciplinary team of advisors spends valuable resources training the new group of cadets.

While using a nearly all-senior approach to staffing certainly has disadvantages, there are incredible advantages as well. FalconSat-2 gains a group of cadets that have proven themselves on academic and leadership aspects of cadet life during their first three years at the Academy Additionally these cadets understand the theories they have learned from their rigorous core courses and are ready to apply them in the FalconSat-2 project.

Recognizing the challenges of training a new staff each year, FalconSat-2 has begun integrating juniors into the course. This approach allows the seniors to train their replacements during their final term of study, and also gives the juniors real on-the-job training instead of "trial by fire." Additionally, as FalconSat-2 approaches their summer 2002 delivery date, rather than stretch the already thin student resources even more so, the increased trained staff of juniors can handle the inevitable surges in workload.

Procurement

Perhaps the single greatest challenge is maintaining the aggressive delivery date with NASA. This drives the procurement strategy. After considering a variety of procurement options, a final decision was made.

The procurement involves anything from spectrum analyzers and connectors to solar panels and major nano-satellite subsystem components. Combine these unique requirements with an initial delivery date of less than one year, and it is easy to understand why locating a fast and reliable procurement method is a cornerstone to the success of FalconSat-2.