LES Cost – A Development, Production and Operation Costs Estimation Tool based on TransCost

Abstract

A necessary part of project management is, also for space transportation projects, a realistic and reliable cost estimation of all project phases. The low amount of experience or reference data turns the cost estimations of space projects into an extraordinary difficult issue, which is however necessary to assess the sustainability of a design and to compare it with other designs. The TransCost model delivers a parametric cost estimation method that provides reliable and realistic results with the help of CERs (Cost Estimation Relationships). Based on data gathered for European programs such as Ariane 5 and Vega and adjusted version of TransCost has been established by DLR. In order to ease the cost calculations an automated tool has been developed. This DLR internal tool is called LesCost. LesCost allows estimating development, production and operations costs based on the adjusted TransCost method.