Space Architecting: Seeking the Darwinian Optimum Approach

Abstract

The last few years have seen an explosion in quality decision support tools and decision support frameworks providing analytic foundations for architecting systems of systems and families of systems. Systems engineers have been eagerly asking for such a capability in order to integrate an ever more complex community of space systems across the National Security Space (NSS). For Air Force Space Command, a new concern for architecting is how to seamlessly include the cyber architecting strategies from this point forward. To date, no overarching or guiding theme united these architecting efforts and their toolsets and provided overall guidance to the space design community. In addition, without some architectural guidance, it has been very difficult determining the science and technology (ST hence, the framework which employs them will require diverse teams to successfully generate products. The DAO uses biological analogues and basic Darwinian theories mixed with modern analytic tools optimized by operations research and systems engineering principles. For example, the tools can be used to operate on highly diverse options in the early phases of concept development (i.e., growth), followed by a strong down selection mechanism to a dominant design or set of features in a given niche (e.g., Analysis of Alternatives) . This dominant or optimum design is known as the government reference design (GRD). The GRD can then be put into other niches for further analysis of its adaptability. The down selection in any niche is based on measureable qualities, similar to the qualities of successful Darwinian candidates. Similarly, the DAO evolves over time, based on the inherent characteristics of the architecture (both hereditary and non-hereditary traits) that provide the most benefit (e.g., have higher fitness). The DAO must deal with complexity, at least on the order of the complexity of the operation of the human body and the anthropomorphic or biological emphasis serves as a framework to extend the overall research strategy into the cyber realm. In this way, numerous medical and immunological applications can quickly be adapted for use in the architecting process for future space cyber systems. This paper is aimed at addressing how to organize analytic tooling to instantiate a unified architecting methodology and possibly unified space architecture. This paper outlines an approach to begin building a unified analytic tool set and architecting to Darwinian optimum standards