A New Concurrent Engineering Tool for the Mission Design Center at NASA Ames Research Center

The Mission Design Center at NASA Ames Research Center is in the midst of a transformation, with focus on personnel, physical space, tools, and training. Towards the goal of becoming a Concurrent Engineering Center, the MDC is developing Poseidon, a new concurrent engineering (CE) tool which will facilitate CE sessions beginning in 2021. The tool is being developed with heavy stakeholder involvement, with subject matter experts providing (informal) requirements and providing iterative feedback throughout the development process as a means to effectively generate buy-in. The tool stores all information centrally so as to be accessible to all registered users for a given concept, and provides for an effective de-confliction process should the need arise. Poseidon is designed to support three levels of analysis fidelity: preliminary parametric sizing (first-order analysis), subsystem-level analysis (technical resources allocated by subsystem), and component-based analysis (at which point users are selecting hardware from a database). Each of the traditional spacecraft disciplines has a tailored workspace within the tool; additional workspaces support cost accounting, systems engineering, and mission summary information (including risk tracking). These additional workspaces allow the entire team to work together in a CE session more effectively and efficiently, providing realtime feedback within the entire team. Throughout 2021, additional analysis features and improvements will be added, as well as implementing feedback from real CE sessions.