Aerospace Systems Engineering: Defining Systems for Exploring Mars

9/13/2013 Steven J. D’Urso, Aerospace Systems Engineering Program Coordinator and Lecturer

The Aerospace Systems Engineering 2012-13 class at Illinois took on a topical challenge of defining the scientific systems used in exploring the surface of Mars.

Written by Steven J. D’Urso, Aerospace Systems Engineering Program Coordinator and Lecturer

The Aerospace Systems Engineering 2012-13 class at Illinois took on a topical challenge of defining the scientific systems used in exploring the surface of Mars.

AE Systems Engineering Mars Project
AE Systems Engineering Mars Project
AE Systems Engineering Mars Project

The AE graduate students were invited to present a paper outlining their results and accomplishments during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2013 Conference & Exposition held September 10-12 in San Diego, California. Said AE Systems Engineering Program Coordinator Steven D’Urso of the students’ work: “Understanding that the direction of these developments could proceed to many different ends, the exercise does provide the students with a powerful method of clarifying the strategies and processes necessary to tackle very large complex problems.”

Real-world, complex systems development topics frame the AE542/AE543 sequence. Systems thinking is emphasized, and the systems engineering approach leads to defining objectives, capability, operation concepts, functionality, and requirements for the program discovery phase that further defines architectures and synthesis. Along the way, systems engineering processes and tools are introduced.

In the fall of 2012 the course used an extension to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars Design Reference Mission Five. This represents a continuation of the previous year’s Mars mission study, which focused on in-space transit between Earth and Mars.

The Mars surface mission’s objective is to conduct scientific exploration on that planet to investigate life, climate, and geology, and determine whether human presence can be sustained there. This objective satisfies the needs of the stakeholders, including NASA’s astronauts and planetary scientists, foreign space agencies, manufacturers, contractors, private industries in the space sector, the United States government, the United States public, and the public around the world.

AE Systems Engineering Mars Project graphic
AE Systems Engineering Mars Project graphic
AE Systems Engineering Mars Project graphic

The AE Systems Engineering students discovered that developing concepts-of-operations led to a functional decomposition approach. Function flows enable mission planners to develop operational functional vignettes and system architectures. This process creates a foundation for accomplishing the mission’s objectives.

In their work the students identified the tasks necessary to execute pre-mission setup, scientific objectives, and post-mission needs. The tasks were assembled to create a functional hierarchy, and the functional segments were then employed to develop systems and requirements. The students divided the Mars surface mission structure into three levels:

  • The science objectives of climate, geology, life, and ancillary systems dictated the top level of systems.
  • Segment systems formed the intermediate level. Segment systems interface with other surface systems such as transportation, navigation, communication, life support, maintenance, and power. Some systems, like life support and power, are referred to as “city services,” because they are necessary for all activities throughout the stay on Mars.
  • Finally, mission specific systems that include the laboratory, orbital measurement, and decontamination systems, comprised the third level.

Applying this approach to a selected set of “systems-of-interest” demonstrated the method’s feasibility. The students individually undertook a “system-of-interest” for further investigation. They selected drilling, navigation, transportation, laboratory, and communication systems.

In addition, the students investigated interfaces between the “systems-of-interest,” and followed that by defining systems boundaries. This effectively bound the derived functional requirements corresponding to each system. Martian surface functional requirements were decomposed following the functional architecture. Performance requirements characteristics were established for each higher-level function the system performed.

Moreover, since system decomposition identified interfaces between subsystems, the students defined different interface requirements, including both physical and functional interfaces, which ensured hardware and software compatibility for the entire Mars surface mission.


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This story was published September 13, 2013.