System Engineering for Concurrent Design of in-orbit technological Demonstrators

• Autores: José Miguel Álvarez Romero
• Directores de la Tesis: Elena Roibás Millán (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ( España ) en 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Ingeniería de sistemas para el Diseño Concurrente de demostradores tecnológicos en órbita
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Ángel Pedro Sanz Andrés (presid.), Gustavo Alonso Rodrigo (secret.), Ali Ravanbakhsh (voc.), Jesús Gonzalo de Grado (voc.), Mario Merino Martínez (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Aeroespacial por la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• Calificación: Sobresaliente
• Materias:
  • Ciencias tecnológicas
    • Tecnología del espacio
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Archivo Digital UPM
• Resumen

  • The last two decades of space exploration have been characterized by the origin of a disruptive idea, the New Space concept. This change of paradigm is focused on reducing the development and launch costs of satellites and space vehicles to make it feasible to replace them in a short period of time by more modern models incorporating cutting-edge technologies. As a consequence, space projects have significantly evolved. There has been a shift from large satellites projects, with complex development efforts and times and long life-cycles (several years even decades), to a greater number of small satellites that allow for agile development, short life-cycles and that can incorporate innovative technologies. This change in the missions characteristic size has led to a context of democratization of space, in which small organizations, companies and even universities are able to send their own developments to outer space. This change also requires a modification in the processes and tools used for space missions design, in an attempt to follow other sectors trends such as logistics, software development and even textile. This thesis is framed on this growing need for new methodologies and tools that are capable of streamlining space mission design processes, without penalizing aspects such as design robustness, reliability or innovation. Within the design methodologies currently used in the space sector, attention has been focused on the concept of Concurrent Design or Concurrent Engineering (CE). This technique dates back to the 1940s, but it is still not widespread. It is based on the idea of tasks parallelization, replacing the traditional concept of sequential design. Other development techniques, such as Agile methodologies, have shown great potential in other sectors. These are based on adapting the working environment to the project conditions, promoting a collaborative environment and teamwork and performing development tasks in small increments with very specific objectives. The static nature of certain aspects of Concurrent Engineering, especially considering its potential, has led to the creation and implementation of a new methodology based on these two concepts: The Agile-based Concurrent Engineering methodology. This new methodology incorporates thecould be better adapted to the design of space missions. This allows to enhance those shortages that a traditional concurrent approach may present. These features include the re-allocation of resources or the prioritization of requirements, which allows to focus the development process in small increments. To promote the implementation of this methodology, a new infrastructure has also been created for the Concurrent Design Facility of the Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad, -Ignacio Da Riva- (IDR/UPM). This new infrastructure, called Concurrent Design Application (CDA), allows to enhance and implement the created methodology. Besides being web-based developed to allow remote access to the database, it allows to modify certain aspects: simplicity in the interface while maintaining the utilities, secure and efficient management of the design parameters and great versatility to adapt different design and numerical analysis software or self-developed design modules, among others. Both the new methodology and the developed Concurrent Design Application, CDA, have been tested and evaluated through the preliminary design of several space missions. These designs, which have been performed by aerospace engineers, have had a double objective: (i) testing the CDA software to validate functionality and remove failures, and (ii) comparing the Agile-based Concurrent Engineering methodology with the traditional Concurrent Design. The results obtained have been promising. First, the validation of the CDA beta version has been completed, which has included code debugging, failure fixing and the implementation of additional functionalities. This development, which is currently in the process of registration at the Madrid Intellectual Property Registry, has been well received by the users of the Concurrent Design Facility of the IDR/UPM Institute. On the other hand, the suitability of including Agile methodologies in the Concurrent Design process has been evaluated and demonstrated, especially due to the faster response to design changes. This dissertation opens a wide field of research through which further novel methodologies and tools can be developed to adapt space mission design processes to the new trends and needs of the sector.