The Tradespace Exploration Paradigm

Abstract

Over the past five years, researchers working on a number of system design projects in the Space Systems, Policy, and Architecture Research Consortium (SSPARC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a process of value-focused, broad tradespace exploration for the development of space systems. The broad tradespace framework has provided insights into communicating and quantifying the impact of changing requirements, uncertainty, and system properties such as flexibility and robustness. Additionally, insights have been made in applications to more complex cases, such as analyzing policy effects on system cost and performance, as well as understanding the time-dependent effects of architecture and design choices for spiral development. The tradespace exploration paradigm both broadens the perspective of designers in conceptual design to better understand the “physics” of the proposed solutions relative to one another, and focuses the designer on delivering systems of value to key system stakeholders.