Beyond TRL 9: Achieving the Dream of Better, Faster, Cheaper Through Matured TRL 10 Commercial Technologies

On its web site NASA defines Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9 as: “Actual systems 'flight proven through successful mission operations”. It's the gold standard for the development and implementation of new technologies on NASA spacecraft, and originates from the idea that technologies that have flown can be expected to fly successfully again. While the risks associated with developing a new technology and using it in space are considered by NASA and most of the space community to have been retired by a first flight, there is no guarantee of reliability or success the next time the technology is used in space. In a recent paper, Straub [1] proposed establishing a TRL 10 level that indicates “proven technology demonstrated through extended operations”. After extensive discussion on the need for this and the possible definition, he suggested that a TRL definition higher than 9 would be useful in recognizing and taking advantage of higher maturity space hardware. Multiple other papers have made the case that hardware that has flown successfully and essentially unchanged multiple times will certainly have higher reliability and lower implementation risk than single flight units. The Psyche mission provides a unique case for testing these arguments about higher maturity hardware and extending the TRL scale beyond TRL 9. NASA's Psyche mission is procuring the majority of its spacecraft bus from SSL's commercial communication product line, which features spacecraft components and technologies with tens to hundreds of successful flights. In many cases, multiple generations of this hardware have been matured based on lessons learned, which guarantees reliability greatly in excess of one-shot hardware. This paper takes another look at the development of the TRL scale, arguments for its extension, and its application to NASA missions in the light of the flight proven, highly reliable commercial hardware described in this paper. We propose two additional TRL levels adopting and refining prior efforts to define levels of hardware maturity beyond TRL 9. This allows NASA to recognize and utilize the benefits of more mature technologies to build better spacecraft that can reliably explore the solar system; better, faster and cheaper than ever before.