Validation of an automated spacecraft design model: Simple CEM

Abstract

The Aerospace Corporation develops and maintains a suite of tools that perform spacecraft architecture and system engineering trade studies. This is both an area of strong capability and the focus of on-going research at The Aerospace Corporation. One critical area of interest in particular, and the source of much difficulty, is the accurate prediction of spacecraft cost. The current methods most often employed for these studies require significant human interaction and advanced engineering knowledge to result in accurate spacecraft designs and cost estimation. Due to these limitations, existing methods are ill-equipped to handle cost comparisons during rapid tradespace exploration. However, an alternative systems engineering model has been developed to meet these challenges: the Simple CEM (Concurrent Engineering Methodology). Compared to traditional models, the Simple CEM requires fewer inputs and has been validated at the systems level. This paper will focus on the efforts employed to validate this model on the subsystem level, which was undertaken to allow the tool to successfully tie into existing cost models, which require accurate mass inputs to provide reasonable results.