Simplification of Milstar Microwave and Digital Cost Analysis Model

Abstract Tecolote Research, Inc. developed the Microwave and Digital Cost Analysis Model (MADCAM) to estimate per-unit production costs of electronic boxes that will go into the Medium Data Rate (MDR) payload of the Milstar 2 satellite. In the course of crosschecking and validating MADCAM at the request of the joint Milstar Program Office, The Aerospace Corporation discovered a number of simplifications that it compiled into a simplified model called “AEROCAM.” AEROCAM uses fewer than half the number of input parameters needed for MADCAM without any compromise in accuracy. Considered here as an alternative to MADCAM, AEROCAM incorporates general-error regression using a multiplicative-error least-squares regression criterion that minimizes the relative standard error of the estimate. Both models are implemented in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet data base, whose “Solver” routine was utilized to minimize the respective relative error between actual costs and estimates made by the nonlinear cost-estimating re...