Simple concurrent engineering methodology tool for large architectural tradespace exploration

The Aerospace Corporation has been on the leading edge of concurrent engineering design processes in the aerospace industry, based on its development of the Concept Design Center in 1997 [1] and the single spreadsheet Modular Concurrent Engineering Model tool (ModCEM) in 2005 [2]. While these tools allow engineers to rapidly develop satellite point designs given payloads, orbital parameters, and certain key requirements, they are not suitable for conducting large architecture trade studies due to their considerable complexity, as well as the necessity of having a human in-the-loop. With an increased emphasis by the government on developing new satellite solutions that produce superior performance while cutting costs, it is vital to develop a simple, flexible, and accurate tool that can quickly develop spacecraft point designs without requiring a myriad of inputs from a human user in order to explore a broad set of architectures and portfolios. Currently, this tradespace exploration depends heavily on the intuition and experience of the lead systems engineers. Multiple different methodologies are currently under development within the Systems Engineering Division of The Aerospace Corporation, and this paper will focus on one particularly promising option, called the Simple CEM. This tool requires only 23 inputs and has been proven to provide wet mass results within 25% of the total spacecraft mass when compared against a variety of different satellite systems. While this may seem to be a large error bar, this uncertainty is quite reasonable considering the simplicity of the model and the coarse, high-level analysis for which it is intended. At the subsystem level, there is considerable variation from the flight mass values of the mission, but the errors balance out at the space vehicle level.