The Multimission Modular Spacecraft for the 80's

The challenge to NASA is to prepare for the missions of tomorrow with manpower and funding constraints of today. The Goddard Space Flight Center has met this challenge with the Multimission Modular Spacecraft (MMS). This spacecraft design has evolved over the past six years while studying various potential missions. The key to the concept of the MMS is modularity and flexibility to accept mission unique hardware with minimum impact on the basic spacecraft bus. Beyond this, it was imperative that this multiple mission bus be cost effective even though it would not be of an optimum design for many missions having minimum performance requirements. The MMS performance and cost will capture 34 of the 43 potential spacecraft missions which have been initially studied. Gamma Ray Explorer (GRE) will be the first mission to utilize the MMS.