This page describes the UTAT systems engineering framework. The objectives of this page are to:
This content is part of the Space Systems Crash Courses. It can be viewed in presentation format here:
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering is about designing systems that leverage all the engineering disciplines like mechanical, electrical, firmware, optical, operations, etc., to produce a coherent system that is more than the sum of its parts and capable of meeting its objectives.
The NASA Systems Engineering Handbook defines a “system” the combination of elements that function together to produce the capability required to meet a need. These elements can include hardware, software, equipment, facilities, personnel, processes, and procedures needed.
A fractal. Systems are fractal in nature.
This is the Sierpinski triangle. Named after the Polish mathematician Sierpinski who first described it, but it appeared as a decorative pattern many centuries before his work. The interfaces between the constituents of the fractal follow very specific rules. This is here to allude to the fact a system is like a fractal. Systems can almost always be decomposed into subsystems. And those subsystems can be further decomposed into subsubsystems. Its turtles all the way down. The FINCH satellite is a system composed of systems like the the payload, the microcontrollers, the solar panels, the firmware. The payload is itself composed of the optics and the mounting hardware. The optics is itself composed of lenses. We direct the growth of the fractal through systems engineering.
Time and time again, it has been proven in industry that complex programs (like ours!) benefit from a systems engineering approach in their development.
Risk reduction by systems engineering. Sections from left to right: system design, detail design, integration, testing ‣.
A project that follows the principles set forth by systems engineering will spend more time in system design, with the benefit being reduced time and risk spent in integration and testing.