Lonnie VanZandt

ABSTRACT Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is an evolving practice in the early stages of adoption similar to the mechanical, electrical and software domains 20 to 30 years ago. Today there is increasing recognition of the potential MBSE brings to system life cycle processes with the increasing complexity of systems and the demands of the global marketplace. In order for the practice to realize this potential, system modeling and MBSE must be part of the larger model based engineering effort, and integrate with other engineering discipline models and modeling activities across the life cycle of a system. This is placing increasing demands on the need for Model Lifecycle Management (MLM) as an essential part of an MBSE infrastructure. This paper establishes the motivation for MLM, as well as laying the foundation for addressing challenges that lay ahead. The paper is focused on describing key concepts, requirements, current practices, and future directions of MLM, and setting the basis for more in depth overview of MLM solutions and vendor offering that are beyond the scope of this paper.

ABSTRACT Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is an emerging technology that is providing the next advance in modeling and systems engineering. MBSE uses Systems Modeling Language (SysML) as its modeling language. SysML is a domain-specific modeling language for systems engineering used to specify, analyze, design, optimize, and verify systems. An MBSE Challenge project was established to model a hypothetical FireSat satellite system to evaluate the suitability of SysML for describing space systems. Although much was learned regarding modeling of this system, the fictional nature of the FireSat system precluded anyone from actually building the satellite. Thus, the practical use of the model could not be demonstrated or verified. This paper reports on using MBSE and SysML to model a standard CubeSat and applying that model to an actual CubeSat mission, the Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) mission, developed by the Michigan Exploration Lab (MXL) and SRI International.