Cross Lifecycle Modeling in MBSE

The Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Infusion and Modernization Initiative (MIAMI) is a NASA-wide effort to lay the groundwork for an integrated framework of tools and technology to advance the objectives of Systems Engineering at NASA, with emphasis on efficiency, interconnectivity, and breadth of scope. Within the MIAMI effort, the Sounding Rocket Team, led by George Plattsmier (MSFC) and George Turner (GSFC), has implemented MBSE within the domain of NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC)Sounding Rocket missions, using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML)to outline system architectures, requirements, mission assurance, stakeholders, events, and deliverables. The current team effort supports the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-Ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS) experiment. The rocket team, focused on the mission planning and execution domain, is working in tandem with a MIAMI Sounding Rocket MaGIXS experiment team, focused on the experiment domain, to model the mission, systems, experiment, and interfaces to produce and deploy an integrated mission model. Through communication and coordination between NASA and the Sounding Rocket Program Office (SRPO), the MIAMI Sounding Rocket team is tailoring their pilot efforts to specific deliverables identified as critical throughout the full mission lifecycle by Nathan Empson (Mission Operations Manager) and others at SRPO. These products, as part of an overall NASA MBSE pilot effort, will enable evaluation of the utility of MBSE for sounding rocket missions. The team coordinates their work through a spiral development process punctuated by “sprints” to seam together the advancements in defining architecture and behavior of the systems involved, with the various technologies and analyses used to bolster the modeling effort. For developing technologies and modeling patterns, the team continues to interface with the Computer Aided Engineering Systems Environment (CAESE) team at JPL to explore and expand the system “model” from a MagicDraw server project to a nodal system of tools and services that delivers to stakeholders at various levels of cognizance. This environment is centered around an “authoritative source of truth”, known as the Integrated Mission Model upon which several interfaces are integrated such that users throughout all regions of the model see data, commits, updates, and structural changes in real time for a better collaboration workspace throughout the project. In the current instance of this modeling network, the Integrated Mission model uses the individual MagicDraw models for the rocket team and the experiment team, where modelers commit up to the master model, and use synchronized checkouts and updates. This allows for better version control, user permission allocation, and support for distributed work efforts to improve collaborative efficiency. The current state and future state of the team effort is to appropriate the tools and libraries available to meet the desired use-cases requested by NSROC. Throughout the process of MBSE integration, the larger goal through MIAMI is to project high-level modeling concepts and implementations into useable and tractable deliverables for small missions. Additionally, through support and development of the model as applied to MaGIXS, re-usability is achieved so that the efficiency of modeling itself is improved.