Requirement Generation for Space Infrastructure Systems

Despite heavy investment, in the half-century period between 1970 and 2020 there will be almost no progress in the capability provided by the space infrastructure. It is argued that this is due to a failure during the requirement generaiton phase of the infrastructure's elements, a failure that is primarily due to following the accepted good practice of involving stakeholders while establishing a mission based set of technical requirements. This argument is supported by both a consideration of the history of the requirement generation phase of past space infrastructure projects, in particular the Space Shuttle, and an analysis of the interactions of the stakeholders during this phase. Traditional stakeholder involvement only works well in mature infrastructures where investment aims to make minor improvements, whereas space activity is still in the early experimental stages and is open to major new initiatives that aim to radically change the way we work in space. A new approach to requirement generation is proposed, which is more appropriate to these current circumstances. This uses a methodology centred on the basic function the system is intended to perform rather than its expected missions.