Digital engineering and procurement across the lifecycle

Demonstrate digital modelling technologies to enable adoption of Model-Based Systems Engineering for space missions, accounting for procurement aspects and data exchange throughout the lifecycle.

The ambitious goal to fully apply Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) in future projects and to establish the methodology across ESA missions, engineering domains, customer-supplier boundaries and lifecycle phases demands that the entire lifecycle is addressed. This includes - among others - procurement, operations and the transition of engineering model data from Phase 0/A through to Phase E. For instance, the utilisation of digital system engineering data or models upon handover to the operator is limited and based on documents or static database artefacts. Such formats result in a loss of digital continuity in operational systems and products. Similar constraints and boundaries exist for other domains.In addition, the legal, security and contractual impact of digital procurement and artefact exchange needs to be addressed, for example a digital model as a deliverable item, digital signatures, legal and IPR issues, security issues, long term preservation, etc.Building on analysis conducted for the Model-Based Engineering Hub (MBEH - T708-604SY), this activity shall perform a comprehensive analysis of the data to be exchanged along the lifecycle. It shall identify gaps between adoption of a model-based approach versus the current approach in terms of archetypes, tools, models and the impact on existing ECSS standards and processes. Outputs shall also guide engineering subdomains in the integration of their domain to the (model-based) system level. They may also be used for prioritisation of semantic modelling work.The activity encompasses the following tasks:- Identify artefacts to be exchanged for each of the project milestones (e.g. SRR, PDR) and the tools/data/models currently in use. Evaluate the impact on existing processes of adopting MBSE versus expected benefits.- Analyse contractual, legal and security impacts for digital deliverables across the lifecycle (e.g. between Agency-industry, between different industrial parties).- Trade-off, per artefact and per associated engineering task or milestone, possible MBSE tools, models and representations- Down-select and for the key exchange use case(s), model the artefacts to be exchanged- Capture formal semantics required for those cases identified and demonstrate exchange based on the MBEH infrastructure- Capture lessons learned and propose future work in terms of changes to procurement and engineering practices, to encourage adoption of MBSE across European space missions.