How to maximize space platform effectiveness through interoperability and composability

Space operations are increasingly collaborative efforts among federal agencies, allies, and commercial partners, each relying on their technology and shared data to support missions. However, seamless communications between proprietary satellite networks and partners’ platforms remains challenging. To make true interoperability in space a reality, agencies must align to common standards and protocols as they build systems.

Space technology has always been expensive for the government due to lengthy development timelines, highly specialized engineering needs, and no tolerance for failure. Historically, agencies built systems from scratch for specific missions with little attention paid to connecting with other assets. Integration happens later, usually at considerable expense and complexity.

Agencies can avoid these high costs by embracing interoperability and composability, which foster compatibility among proprietary systems. These approaches focus on breaking down complex designs into modular components — think of them as high-tech Legos — that can be reused to meet similar needs in other systems. This flexibility shortens development timelines, reduces redundant efforts, and offers new scalability to space projects.

Missed connections

The skies are peppered with military and commercial satellites that provide global communications, navigation, and other operational needs. Military services need to simplify switching between networks to enhance resiliency and fill coverage gaps. However, incompatible components, interfaces, and data formats impede these efforts.

The disconnect stems from a traditionally siloed development approach. Sharing technology between programs is uncommon, even when other parts of the same agency may have developed suitable solutions. As a result, program teams focused on successfully creating ‘their’ satellite, for example, end up with an entirely custom design that often reinvents pre-existing capabilities.

Instead of bespoke solutions, composability embraces digital engineering practices to combine, reconfigure, and reuse modular components to meet requirements. Much like agencies have built software libraries over time, creating a repository of functions with common design references would allow for more rapid design and mission performance analysis as well as shorten build time for new systems by leveraging prior design elements and sub-components. New projects should start with identifying which Lego components could be reused, making it easier to build up new or modernized capabilities. Over time, agencies will likely use fewer components across more systems, increasing speed to deployment of new and improved capabilities while reducing overall cost of new systems.

Rethinking how to build for space

The Air Force and Space Force have already signaled common systems and collaboration will be paramount for the future force. This year, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced a re-optimization of the services and established two new offices — the Integrated Capabilities Office and Integrated Capabilities Command — to stop fragmented development and focus on service-wide capabilities.

Much like agencies shifted toward commercial space companies to reduce costs and acquire innovations, they’ll need to opt for open standards and wherever possible commercial off-the-shelf components to deliver more capable and cost-efficient space solutions.

Efficient and accurate data analysis is critical for timely decision-making, so systems must be designed to exchange and protect information from the start. Components should boast ample edge-processing power, and have automated data labeling and structuring tools so information can be appropriately secured, shared or ingested by artificial intelligence models. 

Open standards doesn’t mean open access

Open standards have long enabled technological innovation. Space should be no different. Driven by stakeholder consensus or a governing body, open standards provide the protocols that become the foundation for compatibility and interoperability. This common language opens the door to many vendors competing to achieve the next major advancement, the way TCP/IP became the fundamental communication protocol of the internet and spurred its growth.

It’s a misconception that open standards inherently put sensitive mission data at risk. Standards are rigorously reviewed as they are developed, with stakeholders and security experts examining them for potential vulnerabilities and mitigating them early in the process. Further, current principles such as with zero trust architectures, when included in evolving open standards, will enable increasingly achievable and sustainable data level security for these systems. Open standards facilitate data exchange between different components, without inherently leaving access to mission data at increased risk.

More than the sum of its parts

Interoperability and composability allow agencies to share resources like communication links and computing power across a network of space platforms. Many current satellite networks have limited data paths, but composability enables more collaboration across constellations with less reliance on direct ground station links for sharing.

Computing resources could also be pooled, collectively leveraging the power of many connected platforms for specific missions. This flexibility helps meet size, weight, and power constraints while improving performance.

The advantages extend beyond just reducing costs and shortening timelines. When fully implemented, interoperable and composable architectures unlock new capabilities impossible with traditional development methods.

Space technology composed of modular, interoperable components will be more capable, scalable, and sustainable long-term. Shifting to this new design mindset is crucial for building more affordable, resilient, and innovative space systems for the future.

Ron Fritzemeier is a retired rear admiral of the U.S. Navy and director of Mission Solutions at Intel

Sean O’Neill is a former Lieutenant Commander of the U.S. Navy and manager of the Special Programs Office in Intel Federal