From Apollo to Amazon - Ground Control Changing
2019
The recent announcement of Amazon Web Services Ground Station, a novel service from the enterprise that aims at
easy and cost-effective data download from Earth orbiting satellites into its global cloud computing infrastructure by
a fully managed network of ground antennas located around the world, has raised major attention in the space
community. However, it only marks the latest, logical move of the still emerging NewSpace industrial branch, which,
after capturing the space and transfer segments of astronautics, has shown increasing interest in entering the ground
segment. Where established mission operation centers tend to be mired down in layers of licensing, regulatory
processes, standardization and mission-by-mission operations, new players equipped with self-defined and flexible
degrees of freedom could become real game changers. This especially holds true, if paired with strong motivation
and supported by gigantic financial backing.
In our paper we focus on ground control, investigating the evolution of spaceflight from the Apollo era to cloud
based computing. We find that technological leadership is seemingly not the main element driving disruptive
changes in this area. Instead, a solid business model outside the box of classic astronautics and a strong focus on the
users of space-borne products might be the key to success. We show the pros and cons of such an approach, also
displaying possibilities for classic mission operations and ground control style. On this backdrop, we suggest a
change of paradigm towards the de-centralized control of spacecraft to keep abreast of the societal digital transition.
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