Feature

The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) was established at ESTEC in November 1998; on an experimental basis, under the sponsorship and initiative of the General Studies Program (GSP). The idea was to evaluate the use of Concurrent Engineering (CE) to create an integrated design environment for the assessments of future missions. The first case study was provided by the Central European Satellite for Advance Research (CESAR) mission assessment, performed from January to March 1999, which ESA had undertaken jointly with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) on behalf of the Central European Initiative (CEI). The design facility was named after the study: CesaR (Concurrent Engineering Set-up for Advanced Results).
 
The Experimental Phase
 
In ESA, the concurrent engineering method had already been partially applied in two mission assessment studies: Euromoon and Venus Sample Return. These examples were not concerned with the suitability of the method itself, being focussed more on the actual mission under definition rather than a permanent re-usable infrastructure.  
 

Due to the experimental nature of the exercise, existing equipment was used to build up the facility and the infrastructure was based on products already available within the office automation domain. This enabled the training time normally required, to be utilised instead to concentrate on the methodology.
 
 
The "Barrack" Era