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NASA Senior Design: Mission Assurance Management Environment

Abstract

This paper discusses the implementation experience of our NASA senior design project. Our NASA senior design project Mission Assurance Management Environment is to increase the reliability, availability, and safety of unmanned aircraft, by focusing on implementing the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, Flight Project Practices, FPPs, and Design Practices, DPs, in an integrated software environment. This project enables the students at California State University Los Angeles to understand the function and scope of the spacecraft mission assurance activities and to make contribution to NASA ESMD. During the senior design project implementation, students work with their advisor and NASA expert to conduct the research on mission assurance management and improve their related technical background of the project, including project requirement, design, and implementation related skills.

Introduction

Part of the NASA vision is to initially send robots and in the end humans to explore the Moon, Mars and possibly other celestial bodies. The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) is dedicated to creating a constellation of new capabilities, supporting technologies and foundational research that enables sustained and affordable human and robotic exploration of the solar system.

For these long duration human and robotic exploration missions that ESMD faces, the mission assurance management of the building, launching, and operating spacecraft is a crucial component. Both predictable and unpredictable risks exist in the lifetime of the spacecraft dispatched to explore our solar system. To address this challenge, we propose to improve spacecraft building and operating processes with integrated software support environments. Added components of this environment include systems engineering approaches with research focused on mission success of the flight projects and the development of all the requirements to make sure these projects minimize the unavoidable risks that such unique endeavors entail.

To achieve this goal, JPL has developed a set of practices called FPPs (Flight Project Practices) and DPs (Design Practices) [1]. However, it is difficult to ensure that the work being done by the typical “one-of-a-kind” JPL projects follow the FPPs and DPs in their entirety or at least to the extent that is necessary and sufficient to minimize risks. Therefore, we investigated and integrated approaches to implement a high level software system to support JPL’s FPPs and DPs. This will effect a possibly important change in the way JPL works at minimizing the risk involved in their flight missions. Our NASA senior design project Mission Assurance Management Environment is to increase the reliability, availability, and safety of space missions, by focusing on implementing the JPL’s FPPs and DPs in an integrated software environment.

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Guo, J., & Macias, J., & Hoo, J., & Velasquez, R., & Fastovsky, M., & Conrad, J., & Hong, S. (2010, June), Nasa Senior Design: Mission Assurance Management Environment Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--15855