2.2 The Systems Engineer

For projects that are too large for a single person to handle in their head, the field of systems engineering is to formalize the development of large, complex systems, typically run by teams [Akin]. Systems engineering offers a rigorous, systematic approach to organization and record-keeping, first introduced in the 1950s for ICBM development for failure-critical missions. As spacecraft missions are failure-critical, the spacecraft program life cycle follows a rigorous and systematic timeline with explicit definitions of progress.

NASA is an enormous entity with inertia that maintains central organization and publishes documents publicly, making NASA standards widely adopted in spacecraft systems engineering. NASA has created a reference handbook for systems engineering, intended to “provide general guidance and information on systems engineering that will be useful to the NASA community”.

We will reference and even paraphrase this handbook heavily and highly recommend a detailed reading of the handbook for deeper discussions of the system engineering process. For the fundamentals in systems engineering, the suggested reading is Chapter 2 of the NASA systems engineering handbook, only 14 pages long. The next paragraphs are a summary.

Systems engineering tasks include “design, realization, technical management, operations, and retirement of a system”, or the entire system’s life cycle [NASA]. A systems engineer is a technical manager, who focuses on the interfaces between subsystems, evaluates system-level performance, and makes “big picture” decisions. The systems engineer interfaces with the subsystem specialists, balancing technical needs against each other, sometimes in the face of exactly opposing requirements or constraints. In a team environment, the systems engineer must often navigate tense social situations, from individual egos to high-stress team dynamics. When interacting with lead scientists or higher-level program management, the systems engineer supports the development of the concept of operations (ConOps) and system architecture.

^{Stephen Cox is the Launch Control Center (LCC) Manager for Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Stephen discusses lessons learned as a project manager. The full video can be found at Launch Control Center Project Management by Stephen Cox Launch Control Manager. Video courtesy of NASA.}

In overall project management, the counterpart to a systems engineer is a program or project manager, who is a separate person for larger projects but may be merged with the systems engineer for smaller projects. As this textbook is geared towards undergraduate projects typically smaller in scope, the latter case is much more likely, so we will expand upon aspects of project management in depth in this textbook as well.