8 th Conference on Systems Engineering Research March 17-19, 2010, Hoboken, NJ Incorporating Multidisciplinary Design Optimization into Spacecraft Systems Engineering Jian Guo Chair of Space Systems Engineering Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Delft University of Technology Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS, Delft, The Netherlands j.guo@tudelft.nl Abstract Systems Engineering (SE) and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) are usually regarded as two different aspects of spacecraft design. This paper investigates the problem of merging these two fields for the improvement of the spacecraft system design. The SE and MDO processes are described with emphases on their principles, models and tools, followed by a detailed analysis of their relationships and the requirements for merging the two. Promising technologies, such as tradespace exploration and Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE), are identified as possible connections between SE and MDO. Based on the analysis performed in the paper, a detailed scheme is presented that utilizes these techniques for the incorporation of MDO into spacecraft SE. Introduction The development of spacecraft is a very complicated task involving both technical and management aspects such as cost, schedule, risk and reliability. A good design can be obtained only by considering all these aspects from a systems point of view. In order to reduce development cost, shorten development cycle, and meanwhile achieve high product quality, the technologies of Systems Engineering (SE) and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) could be used. SE and MDO share some features, for example the interdisciplinarity. However, up to the present time SE and MDO are still regarded as two different fields of spacecraft design. The former one focuses more on the technical or management process to ensure that the overall spacecraft meets the mission objectives. The latter one aims to search for an optimal spacecraft design scheme according to well structured multidisciplinary mathematical models. So far, significant work has been done in the field of spacecraft SE. Especially, some theories and approaches of SE have been well-reorganized and utilized by space industries worldwide. From another side, although much research on spacecraft MDO has been performed, this technology has been rarely used in the space industry. This paper provides a preliminary idea for the incorporation of MDO into spacecraft SE by identifying the connections between them. The paper consists of two main parts. The first part is an overview of the SE and the MDO technologies, with the emphasis on SE and MDO principles, models and tools for spacecraft design. The second part investigates the relationships between spacecraft SE and MDO. The difficulties and requirements for incorporating MDO into spacecraft SE are analyzed. Two promising technologies, i.e. CSER 2010 314