OPENSPACE 23: The Satellites that Are Shaping Our Future | Page 25

“ Since its creation in 1998 , the CDF has reduced mission design time by a factor of four and the cost by a factor of two .”
Credit : ESA . decisions by consensus . This revolutionized the sequential design approach , which had been subsystem designers in isolation without being able to see the rest of the system . It breaks the gap between designers and users .
For example , in October / November 2006 , we studied the feasibility of SmallGEO mission , a new small modular telecom platform launched on January 28 , 2017 . Small GEO demonstrated the benefits of concurrent engineering for both the design and the project review phases . This is very special , as we believe that concurrent engineering is also a valid approach for project reviews .
What missions are you currently working on at the CDF ?
We are working on the Miniaturized Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer ( M-ARGO ) mission to rendezvous with a near-Earth object by using a standalone , deep space nano-spacecraft that would integrate the latest miniaturized technologies .
What has been the most exciting mission you have worked on so far ? Why ?
One of the most thrilling studies was the assessment of the Planetary Entry Probes mission . We had to do a preliminary design of a probe and the entry and descent system for four planets : Venus , Uranus , Saturn , and Neptune . It was very interesting because we had to identify the system design commonalities , similarities , and differences between these four different planets .
How does the CDF support space missions to move forward ?
The CDF design approach is based on multidisciplinary models and it helps to manage complexity at scalable levels . To the point that CDF has become essential for the digital transformation of space practices .
Read more http :// www . esa . int / Our _ Activities / Space _ Engineering _ Technology / CDF
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