A Tabletop Game to Study Business Wargaming in the P-LEO SATCOM Marketplace

Given recent large investments in space-based businesses, proliferated low Earth orbit (P-LEO) satellite constellations offering broadband internet services have become an active area of research and development. The landscape of satellite communications (SATCOM) has radically changed: unknown dynamics now enter the marketplace and interactions between constellation operators are undetermined. Although there has been extensive work comparing the performance of individual P-LEO constellations and their broad economic impacts, the temporal effects and competitive dynamics of this nascent marketplace have not been modeled. To address this need, we have created a tabletop board game that simulates both the system design of P-LEO constellations and the economic dynamics between constellation operators (players within the board game). By representing market events as game mechanics and incrementally developing the game complexity, we purged the majority of trivial game strategies and edge cases while simultaneously improving playability and engagement. This process has led to the development of a robust, multi-player game that can be used to examine and test high-level P-LEO constellation development strategies while reducing the time required for intensive software development and play-testing.