DISTRIBUTED SPACE MISSIONS (DSM) HAVE MOSTLY BEEN CONCEPTUALLY INVESTIGATED FOR EARTH SCIENCE SINCE THE LATE 1990S. THE CONCEPT HOWEVER HAS NOT BEEN SYSTEMATICALLY INTEGRATED IN THE MAINSTREAM MISSIONS E.G. DECADAL SURVEY MISSIONS ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN CONSIDERED AND EVEN UTILIZED WHEN IT WAS THE ONLY SOLUTION CAPABLE TO SATISFY SOME GIVEN SCIENCE GOALS SUCH AS THE HELIOPHYSICS SYSTEM OBSERVATORY (HSO) MENTIONED IN THE 2010 NASA SCIENCE PLAN AND CONSTELLATIONS OF COMPLEMENTARY SATELLITES IN THE EARTH SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY OFFICE (ESTO) 2030 SCIENCE VISION. THE INTEREST IN DSM WAS INITIALLY LIMITED DUE TO COST AS WELL AS POTENTIAL COMPLEXITY ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH MISSIONS. THE HIGH COSTS THAT WERE ESTIMATED FOR POTENTIAL DSM WERE OFTEN THE CONSEQUENCE OF CONSTELLATION DESIGNS BASED ON REPEATING N TIMES THE DESIGN AND THE BUILDING OF ONE SPACECRAFT THEREFORE LEADING TO COSTS BEING N TIMES THE COST OF A MONOLITHIC MISSION; THIS IS EXPLAINED NOT ONLY BY THE MISSION DESIGN ITSELF BUT ALSO BY COST MODELS THAT HAVE BEEN DESIGNED FOR MONOLITHIC MISSIONS AND DO NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT COST SAVINGS ASSOCIATED WITH ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND WITH RISK MINIMIZATION WHEN DEALING WITH DSM. DISTRIBUTED MISSIONS DO ADD TO COMPLEXITY NOT ONLY IN THE MISSION DEVELOPMENT PHASE BUT ALSO IN THE OPERATIONAL PHASE AND THIS COMPLEXITY TRANSLATES INTO ADDITIONAL COSTS AND RISK. HOWEVER THE ADDED COMPLEXITY PROVIDES FOR NEW CAPABILITIES THAT CAN SERVE TO SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENTIATE AND ADD VALUE TO A MISSION.