Established in 1984, Microcosm is a small business, specializing in reducing space mission cost. Our experience covers commercial, military, and scientific missions from small, low-cost programs to multi-billion dollar, multi-satellite constellations and a family of launch vehicles.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF MICROCOSM'S EXPERIENCE ARE:

Currently the launch vehicle division (LSD) or Microcosm is developing via contracts with U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the Scorpius family of ultra-low-cost launch vehicles with projected recurring launch costs of:   --800 lbs to LEO ~ $3.0 million (Sprite)   --13,000 lbs to LEO for ~ $9.0 million (Exodus)

Developing technology applicable to low-cost sounding rockets and extendible from light lift to heavy lift launch to orbit, including new, low-cost propulsion, avionics, and structures.

A primary focus of Microcosm's Space Systems Division (SSD) is space mission architecting, mission and systems engineering, and related orbit and attitude analysis services. Our staff has a broad experience working space mission, systems, and control systems issues - particularly during the early project phases where maximum leverage exists for influencing life-cycle cost. Because Microcosm personnel also work with on-orbit operations and anomaly resolution, the resulting design solutions are grounding in a strong understanding of their full life cycle impacts.

Microcosm's experience in space mission engineering is unparalleled among small companies and even among larger companies. We have worked with essentially all of the small-spacecraft prime contractors and have performed mission and systems engineering for many large commercial and government programs, including Iridium, GPS, Teledesic, and Discover II. We address a variety of system engineering areas, such as spacecraft, navigation, attitude, and orbit control systems design and performance analyses, on-board autonomy, orbit and constellation design, coverage analysis, mission utility assessment, and cost estimation.

Microcosm, teamed with ZARM (part of the Production Technology Department of the University of Bremen in Germany) produces space qualified torquers. Because of the careful selection of torquer materials and the high quality production, the Microcosm/Zarm torquers exhibit extremely low residual dipole moment and hysteresis. Torquers ranging in size from 5 to 800 Am2 are available. Our customers include OHB-System, Dornier, and the USAF.

Microcosm's experience in autonomous navigation and on-board orbit control in unsurpassed, with over a dozen contracts, four patents, and several commercial and flight software systems. Similarly, our attitude determination and control experience covers all mission aspects and a wide variety of applications from small, low-cost missions to low Earth orbit constellations, and geosychronous Earth orbit and interplanetary spacecraft.

Developed and patented the Microcosm Orbit Control Kit (OCK)*, an onboard software system that autonomously maintains the spacecraft in a pre-defined (or adjustable) stationkeeping box. The OCK uses sensing, control, and computing hardware already on board most spacecraft and typically requires less propellant than orbit maintenance done from the ground.

Created and published Space Mission Analysis and Design (SMAD), a 1,000-page text and practical reference work in mission design and concept exploration. Developed for the Air Force, the most widely used book in astronautics includes substantial work directly relevant to low-cost space mission engineering by Microcosm personnel and many other senior engineers. The third edition was published in August 1999.

Developed Reducing Space Mission Cost (RSMC), a follow-on to SMAD which discusses spacecraft design, construction, testing, launch, and mission operations. It provides both traditional and radical cost reduction methods and describes 11 case study missions in detail.

Developed the Advanced High Precision Orbit Propagator (HPOP) and SatLife systems. We have also developed a Mission Utility and System Engineering (MUSE) module for STK for evaluating the overall mission effectiveness of a particular system or spacecraft design.

Developed Mission Geometry: Orbit and Constellation Design and Management (OCDM), an update of the 1978 industry standard references Spacecraft Orbit and Attitude Systems and Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control. This new volume is now available and we are currently taking orders for it on the Microcosm Bookstore website.

* U.S. Patent Number 5,687,084

For job opportunities at Microcosm please send inquiries to:

Microcosm, Inc. ATTN: Human Resources 4940 West 147th St. Hawthorne, CA 90250-6708 U.S.A.

Fax: (310) 219-2710 Email: hr@smad.com

Email us at microcosm@smad.com HOME