● Auther
Kuniko OKADA (JAMSS)
Deputy Manager, Advanced Business Development Office
and Group Leader, Utilization Promotion Group, ISS Utilization and Operation Department
● Profile
She had been working as a member of Payload Flight Controller Team for ISS/Kibo, supporting Space Utilization for a long time. With her knowledges and experiences, she is working to support the commercial utilization and contributing the new business development for LEO Commercialization.

There is a variety of "Space Utilization". For example, satellites like weather satellites and communication satellites provide the important infrastructures for our lives. Although we are not often aware of them, this is exactly one of "Space Utilization".
Let me show you the process on Space Utilization like research in the International Space Station (ISS), not the satellites this time, and I’d like to focus on the "Gap" of understandings as mentioned before. I hope this article would inspire your interests on Space Utilization.
The first gap is "Prep Time".

Most of the utilization in the ISS are for research and experiments in space. Their objectives are to investigate the effects of radiation and/or microgravity. They will be performed in space, so the implementation process is different from that on the ground.

● Knowing What You Want to Do
On the ground, you are allowed to do "try and error". If there are no tools/equipment, you can develop the dedicated one. If you want to observe the phenomena, you can do it here. It’s like the ordinary way.
But ... can you do it in ISS? In the ISS, it’s so complicated!
- It’s not easy to schedule "try and error" activities.
- New tools/equipment must be reviewed for their launch, which of course requires additional costs.
- Downlinked video is necessary for the observation.

Since it’s not realistic for you to go to ISS yet, it’s important to let astronauts and flight controllers to clearly know what you plan to do.
Actually, THIS seems to be the most important thing for us to know when we talk with our customers. Our customers talk about their conceptual ideas to us. At that time, if we say "that’s not allowed in the ISS" due to some constraints, the conversation will end. That’s it!
More meaningful is to propose several ways to implement their idea. To this end, it’s important for our customers and us to share "What You REALLY Want to Do".

● Developing Equipment and Procedures
It’s not simple way to develop equipment for space utilization. To be launched by rocket, it must stand with the vibration, and ensure the safety which is stricter than on the ground. That’s "Space" utilization. In addition, the astronaut's activities are planned in advance as a timeline. It means that we have to develop their procedures and consider in detail how much time each activity will require. Preparation will be made for implementing space utilization from both "hardware" and "software" perspectives.

● Execution!!
After all preparations and hardware launch, we wait for our turn and finally your utilization can be executed. It’s an actual scene supported by a lot of professionals such as astronauts and flight controllers.

You might have found that a lot of people are involved in the space utilization. It means that it takes a lot of time even to share the information among them.

When talking to our customers, we are sometimes asked modestly, "Will it take about one year?". At that time, we answer "It takes AT LEAST one year." Then … they give us the puzzled look.
Some colleagues say, "It takes at least two years" or "Nobody knows when it is." Hmm! Hearing that, we, like salespersons, would be frozen. (LOL)
Nowadays projects in the world usually take several months. If it takes several years, it should be a BIG project. If you heard "Nobody knows when", nobody will say "I’ll do that"!
If there is a customer who will say "I’ll do" even though it’s uncertain when their space utilization can be implemented, it cannot help becoming skeptical on them.

For some cases, ONLY six months are required for prep time shown in the figure, but we need to understand there are some conditions.

Telling the truth, we have experienced delays of hardware development, long safety review process, changes in rocket launch schedules, and have unfortunately pushed by the high-priority activities. To try to reduce the risk of schedule delays, we should be dedicated to preparing our space utilization.

Don’t be afraid it might be a little bit "negative" story. We believe it’s possible to resolve this "time" issue. We have been working for ISS operation for a long time, and we understand it has been improved.
During "Space Shuttle" era, it was very common to change the launch schedule. It was a common sense for us because safety is the top priority forever. We experienced from several days delay to several weeks delay several times. Flight Controllers considered several patterns for time schedules including the on-time case and a couple of postponed cases every time. Looking back, it was a tremendous task. Yes, it has been being improved than before absolutely.

Same as the history of trains and airplanes, "Prep Time" should be shortened in the near future.