ALBATROS - a Space System Engineering tool

Paper number

IAC-07-D5.1.05

Author

Mr. Patrick Hambloch, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Fabio De Pascale, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Michiel Kruijff, Delta-Utec, The Netherlands

Year

2007

Abstract

ALBATROS (Automated Listing Budgeting And Tracing RepOSitory) is a newly developed web-based tool that supports system engineering and QA/PA in satellite design in an integrated and intuitive manner.

It was developed to join all the necessary system engineering functions and elements in one application, accessible at all times for all team members. The tool was launched and - quite uniquely - was allowed to evolve significantly during a real satellite project and eventually proved to be very successful in increasing the project's quality and in streamlining its design. This paper highlights the design process and software architecture behind the tool that has lead to great flexibility and allows the tool to be easily adapted and scaled up or down for any project. The dynamical interaction of ALBATROS development and usage of the tool within the YES2 project was analyzed particularly focussing on promising improvements in the project development resulting from the tool use as well as on needs and innovative ideas that arose from the project and were successively implemented in ALBATROS. Also the impact on the working methodology of the project team is illustrated. For example many projects have several system engineering tools running in parallel and it is often the fact that those tools find only a few users due to the investment required to work with them and synchronize them. 

ALBATROS is a database that combines a huge collection of features for every stage of a project: basic ones which are used from early on and advanced functions that become necessary during production, integration and test phase.  These features include contacts handling, task- and time-planning, budgets (e.g. mass budget), documentation in a consistent format, requirements on any system level, Review Item Discrepancies handling during design reviews, design changes, signals and cabling and also detailed information on any piece of hardware. From the start all the entered data is immediately accessible, presented in a proper way and can be linked to almost any other element in the database through a powerful relation system.

The main strength of ALBATROS is that it is a single and powerful tool and therefore it is in fact used by the whole team - at different access levels. This has a large impact on the work of the system engineer who becomes more a controller and less a designer of details.

Abstract document

IAC-07-D5.1.05.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-D5.1.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.