Cost Estimation of Earth Observation Satellites Based on Technology-Aware Complexity and Cost Adjustment

Abstract

This study proposes a concept of the technology-aware complexity, representing the system performance characteristics considering the technological progress. A new procedure to estimate the Earth-observation satellite development cost using the proposed technology-aware complexity and the cost adjustment has been introduced. The procedure can utilize the satellite database smartly/effectively for an accurate cost estimation—particularly during the early project development phase. A case study on the cost estimation of an existing satellite system demonstrates the proposed procedure’s validity.