The ISAM Capabilities Map
In 2024, the UK Space Agency commissioned Growbotics for the report What Capabilities does the UK have in In-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing?.
This online map provides a way to navigate the ISAM taxonomy we established for the project and search for organisations with related capabilities. It contains 32 core capabilities, 32 support capabilities and 30 applications that they support.
We hope that by making this information publicly accessible we can improve sector coordination and provide a starting point for further research.
The contents are accurate to the best of our knowledge. If you spot any inaccuracies, or think we’ve missed something important, please let us know by emailing hello@growbotics.space.
Definition of ISAM
- In-Orbit Servicing: the supply of goods and services from space to space
- In-Orbit Manufacturing: the production of goods in space for use in space or on earth
- In-Orbit Assembly: the process of combining parts in space
ISAM is a key element to what is sometimes referred to as the in-space economy or the beyond-Earth economy, an emergent market that is growing with the number of satellites in orbit (and therefore, the number of customers who require goods and services in orbit).
It is useful to look at the definition of ISAM in terms of supply chains, as ISAM involves moving supply chains from Earth to space, closer to the point of use.
ISAM is a key element to what is sometimes referred to as the in-space economy or the beyond-Earth economy, an emergent market that is growing with the number of satellites in orbit (and therefore, the number of customers who require goods and services in orbit).
It is useful to look at the definition of ISAM in terms of supply chains, as ISAM involves moving supply chains from Earth to space, closer to the point of use.
An overview of ISAM supply chains and a definition of (un)prepared and (un)cooperative can be found in Appendix A of the report.
ISAM capabilities taxonomy definition
We created a taxonomy to categorise and break down the capabilities of the ISAM sector. While a number of different capabilities taxonomies exist, we were required to establish the relationship between applications, the functional capabilities that enable those applications, and the technologies that perform the functions. Our approach mimicked a typical waterfall systems engineering process, where a set of use cases (applications) is decomposed as a functional breakdown (capabilities). Those functions are then allocated to elements of the system (technologies).
To limit the scope of the work, we identified only what is needed for ISAM beyond normal spacecraft functions. Due to the relative immaturity of this sector as a whole, as well as the time constraints of the project, lower levels of the taxonomy hierarchy are less mature in their categorisation. We prioritised technical elaboration of the core capabilities over-elaboration of the support capabilities.
Caveats
The lack of industry agreement about the definition of some terms means that some categorisations are necessarily subjective. The list was validated with the UK community through a series of workshops in 2024. Broad agreement was reached on the definition of applications and we are confident we have captured the range of capabilities and key technologies that enable ISAM.
We have not taken into account relative sizes of categories to balance the groupings. For applications, this would be expected to be based on market sizing. For others, this means that some categories are likely to be more broad or more complex than others.