A Parametric Approach to NASA Mission Operations Costing

Quantifying the cost of mission operations can be problematic. Currently few tools exist to estimate these costs and fewer that utilize a parametric approach. This paper begins the process of developing a parametric model for estimating mission operation costs. We hypothesize that the costs of mission operations are determined by the duration and type of operation activity. For the purposes of this paper operation activities fall into the following four categories: hibernated cruise, standard cruise, flyby, and high intensity operations. Hypothesis tests were conducted on each of the aforementioned categories and the results are based on data from APL\textquoterights historical missions. Those results will be used to develop a Cost Estimating Relationship (CER) to better predict mission operation costs.