POLIMI-DIA Concurrent Design Facility to train future system engineers
- Paper number
IAC-08.E1.1.9
- Author
Dr. Michèle Lavagna, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The paper presents the state of the art of the Concurrent Design Facility architecture currently under development at Politecnico di Milano-Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale; such a tool is aimed to support both educational and professional studies in the field of complex space system mission design. The design of the tool followed two primary requirements: making the tool remotely exploitable by the team members: no need to have designers working in the same room exist; freeware software was strongly preferred to develop the tool, because of accessibility and costs drivers. Attention has been paid in giving the tool a standardized format to IØdata to easily interface with agencies and companies that may become customers for PoliMi-DIA. A centralized architecture has been preferred: a server retains all data by means of the MySQL database manager; two different toolboxes interact with it: one designed to remotely manage the users, the mission design process, and to present the obtained results; the other focused on the actual subsystem and system consistent design, to get the best level of system design definition The remote toolbox uses PHP, HTML and JavaScript languages and can be executed with any internet browser; the local module has been developed in OpenOffice.org Calc and its macro developer in StarBasic language. The proposed architecture has the great benefit of presenting the data storage split from the data management: that physical separation facilitates the users working on different functional levels on the project they are in charge of. The proposed application experiences a high grade of general validity which can be translated also in an efficient flexibility: having a unique tool to manage all data allows an easier modification and integration of future functionalities and new features as the programmers have always to deal with the same instrument. Different subsystem design models are available and can be upgraded; at the time being the workbooks includes interfaces with orbital propagators for mission analysis, Electric and Power Storage, Thermal Control, Telemetry Tracking and Control, On-Board Data Handling, structural and propulsion models; the configuration of the system can be also visualized and shared among the team members.Both single unit and constellations coan be dsigned as well as complex systems with different elements such as landers, orbiters and rovers. Different operative modes are also taken into account for the design. The efficiency of the system has been verified through dedicated testing campaign assuming as test cases available reports on already accomplished studies. The tool keeps being updated and refined as it is exploited as educational tool within the Space System Design Master degree course at DIA-PoliMi focused on developing Phase A studies on space missions. Results according to the current missions are presented and discussed in the paper, together with the educational benefits obtained thanks to the tool in training future system engineers.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)