Utilization of concept maturity levels in the ISAS/JAXA space science program

Abstract

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) began using Concept Maturity Levels (CMLs) in its space science program in 2017. The CMLs have been developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for measuring and communicating the maturity of space mission concepts. Using the JPL CML Matrix as reference, ISAS has been developing the ISAS version of CML matrix and checklist by considering difference in programmatics and systems engineering. The CML starts level 1 and we use up to level 5. The 150 checklist items are subdivided into 21 categories spanning from science objectives to cost estimation. We applied the ISAS CMLs to proposal templates for the last two AOs of the ISAS M-class missions and have been using the CML checklist to clarify the maturity level of existing missions up to the mission definition phase. In this paper, we present 1) what we needed to do in customizing the CML checklist for ISAS, 2) responses from the ISAS mission study teams, and 3) future plans for improvement.