Reduction of spacecraft harness mass

Mass of cables implemented on-board a spacecraft is one of the drivers taken into account during spacecraft design phase. One of the requirements is to provide a high ratio between Payload and Spacecraft mass because the contribution of cable lines to spacecraft mass budget is significant, and cable lines have significant lengths, so mass of cable lines becomes a challenging issue. The article identifies and assesses major criteria considered during design of power lines belonging to telecommunication satellites harness. Major contributors to satellite mass budget has been identified, a description of major competitors among world level satellite platform manufactures is given, a comparison of masses of satellites manufactured on the basis of powerful Platforms, i. e. E3000 and Express-2000 is provided. The need to consider such generic criteria as mass and cost during selection of harness manufactures is described. Reduction of on-board harness mass is possible when new, state-of-the-art technology is used. The technology should have a flight proven heritage and shall be widely used by satellite manufacturers in Russia and worldwide. The advantage of implementation of power lines ensuring reliable power distribution which are vital elements of telecommunication satellite electric power subsystem has been reviewed. Implementation of state-of-the-art Axon’ Bus Bar technology, allowing to reduce satellite harness mass and to achieve reduction of satellite mass resulting in decrease of launch cost is being justified.