Project Management and Systems Engineering Framework for Educational Cubesat Missions

<p>The rising complexity of CubeSat missions and the unique challenges faced by educational CubeSat programs lead to high rates of mission failure. Implementing project management and systems engineering practices can alleviate these challenges and improve mission success rates for educational CubeSat developers. However, existing project management and systems engineering resources are too cumbersome and often assume the student has a base-level understanding of project management and systems engineering fundamentals. A new universal project management and systems engineering framework was created and tailored specifically to the needs of an educational CubeSat mission. The framework was designed to accommodate first-time CubeSat developers, has no base-level assumptions, and uses software accessible by the majority of university CubeSat programs. The framework was implemented on an educational CubeSat mission being designed by a first-time CubeSat developer. The framework was iteratively updated based on the developer’s feedback and experience using the templates, tools, and trainings. The universal project management and systems engineering framework for educational CubeSat missions demonstrated that it was effectively tailored to the needs of educational CubeSat missions, taught students the value of project management and systems engineering, enhanced students’ professional development, and was accessible for first-year undergraduate students to utilize with minimal intervention.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Aerospace Engineering

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Garrett, Bailey

Contributors dc:contributor

• Aaron Drake
• Aerospace Engineering
• College of Engineering

• Project Management
• Systems Engineering
• Educational
• CubeSat
• University
• Framework
• Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2022.105

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-4171