Collaborative space system design project
Course Contents The Collaborative Space (System) Design Project (CSDP) is a TU Delft/Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (AE) Master course
in engineering design. The course focuses on the conceptualization and preliminary design phase of a space mission, spacecraft,
or space instrument and starts on a design challenge co-created by the CSDP organization team and a company, research group
or other entity.
All projects on offer are multi-disciplinary projects, i.e. projects that require different types of design work and knowledge to be
combined to provide a design solution. All projects are carried out by a team of students that have to organize and manage
themselves.
Each project is to be organized in 3 phases similar to NASA's System Design Process as defined in a.o. "NASA's System
Engineering Handbook". Some adaptations have been made though to make it fit in the limited course time. The phases are:
1) Exploration phase; In this phase the team is to explore the problem, the needs, the competition and past missions and to
develop a proposal for the next phase of the project. This includes the identification of a range of high-potential concepts for
study in phase 2, the work distribution, etc.
2) Concepts design studies phase; In phase 2, the high-potential concepts defined in phase 1 are analyzed in detail for feasibility,
traded and a best concept is selected. Additionally the plan for the next phase is to be generated.
3) Detailed design phase. In this final phase of the project the single concept selected in phase 2 is worked out in detail and a
plan is developed for the further development of the design is generated.
Each project phase ends with a review (feedback moment) wherein other teams and expert staff reflect on the outcomes
generated and the engineering design methods used.
During the quarter, workshops/instructions will be held to provide knowledge and training on selected management and
engineering design topics, including agile management, and the use of integrated design modelling, i.e. the integration of all the
geometry, configuration, analysis, and requirements verification into a generative, parametric, unified computational model
where data is shared seamlessly between the different disciplines.
The course does not focus on teaching the required disciplinary knowledge and experience, but rather focuses on decision
making, the collaborative integration of the knowledge and experience available in the team, and the iterative design method
using different levels of model fidelity to create a feasible design solution in answer to the problem identified by the "customer".
As projects vary from year to year and may encompass knowledge that is not available in the team, this may require that
participants actively acquire the knowledge required.
Study Goals The course aims to develop student skills in multi-disciplinary team projects from a challenge-driven perspective. In more detail,
students will advance their ability in ...:
- ... disciplinary design including modelling, simulation, visualization, quantitative analysis of alternatives, design tool
verification, calibration and validation, and design refinement.
- ... the process of engineering design (ABET definition), including the steps in design, the (iterative) nature of the process,
development of a Straw Man design, and development of process models.
- ... multidisciplinary design, thereby taking into account differences between the different disciplines involved in terms of a.o.
differences in fidelity level of disciplinary models, and dissimilar assumptions;
- ... systems engineering, including the design phasing, work breakdown and work distribution, modeling and interfaces, and the
role of specialty engineering (e.g. cost-, RAMS-, and mass modelling and configuration design).
- ... concurrent engineering, as opposed to the more classical sequential engineering (the waterfall method).
- ... project management and teamwork (assigning roles and responsibilities, setting goals and objectives, coordination and
management of team process, decision making, handling conflicts, creativity, empowerment and motivation, communication,
and reflection on own work and work of others).
Presential
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Collaborative space system design project
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HaDEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The statements made herein do not necessarily have the consent or agreement of the ASTRAIOS Consortium. These represent the opinion and findings of the author(s).
