All-Electric Satellites: Insurance Implications
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The significant mass reduction of an all-electric satellite compared to a chemically propelled satellite with the same payload, or the ability to include a larger payload for the same launch mass, will reduce transponder prices and ensure that satellite solutions remain competitive against terrestrial alternatives. The major disadvantage of all-electric satellites is the time it takes to reach geostationary orbit, which could be a number of months, even under nominal operations. Traditional space insurance policies include a provision such that a satellite can be declared a total loss if it does not reach geostationary orbit within a predefined number of days. For chemically propelled satellites that require a handful of impulsive burns to complete the transfer to GEO, such a loss is relatively easy to determine, and for a situation, for example, where a satellite is delivered short of its intended apogee, the quantum of a loss, or whether it is worth proceeding with the orbit-raising maneuvers, can be determined with confidence, relatively quickly. The situation for all-electric satellites will be different. For all-electric satellites it may be possible to overcome launch shortfalls or certain propulsion system failure scenarios by increasing the duration of the orbit-raising phase. Satellite insurance policies cover the value of the space asset, which for a newly launched satellite would usually mean the replacement cost of the satellite, the replacement cost of the launch service, and the cost of the insurance—the three main costs in any satellite project. Insurance does not usually cover the revenue that the satellite is expected to generate. While the traditional satellite insurance policies have served satellite operators well, there are failure scenarios for all-electric satellites, which only reduce the level of redundancy, for example, but which could result in a significant increase in the duration of orbit raising. The increased duration of orbit raising will result in a financial impact for the satellite operator due to the loss of revenue associated with the delayed entry into service, but would not be covered by a traditional satellite insurance policy. This article will consider, from an insurance perspective, the implications of moving to all-electric propulsion and suggest ways in which the satellite insurance coverage may need to be adapted to ensure satellite operators continue to be indemnified for the risks they face.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.023 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".