Architecting the future of weather satellites

This constellation of satellites (which may include space capabilities acquired in lieu of U.S. government satellites) will follow the current GOES-R and JPSS satellite programs, beginning about 2030.

This was an opportunity to design a modern architecture with no preconceived notions regarding instruments, platforms, orbits, etc., but driven by user needs, new technology, and exploiting emerging space business models. In this paper we describe how the study was structured, review major results, show how observation priorities and estimated costs drove next-generation choices, and discuss important challenges for implementing the next generation of U.S. civil environmental remote sensing satellites.