Concurrent Engineering Applied to Space Mission Assessment and Design

M. Bandecchi, B. Melton & F. Ongaro

ESA performs pre-Phase-A assessment studies as part of the definition of future space missions. To evaluate the benefits of the 'concurrent engineering' approach to these studies, an experimental design facility was created in ESTEC and used to perform an assessment of the Italian Space Agency's CESAR (Central European Satellite for Advance Research) mission. This article describes the approach adopted and the experience gained during the study, and draws preliminary conclusions on this new approach to space-mission assessment and design.