The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) is the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

main assessment center for future space missions and industrial review. Located at ESTEC, ESA's technical center in Noordwijk in

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, it has been operational since early 2000. As suggested by its name, the CDF uses concurrent engineering methodology to perform effective, fast and cheap space mission studies. Equipped with a state-of-the-art network of computers, multimedia devices and software tools, the CDF allows teams of experts to perform design studies during working sessions.

Activities

The CDF is mainly in charge of performing the assessment studies of future missions for the

. These assessment studies are performed in the early phases of mission and spacecraft design; the so-called "Phase 0" or "Pre-phase A" of the ESA Project Phases in which needs are identified and Mission Analysis is performed. Phase 0 focusses the following: *Identification and characterisation of the intended mission. *Expression in terms of needs, expected performance and dependability and safety goals.space *Assessment of operating constraints, in particular as regards the physical and operational environment. *Identification of possible system concepts, with emphasis on the degree of innovation and any critical aspect. *Preliminary assessment of project management data (organisation, costs, schedules).

Current main activities

In addition to the "normal" studies, the CDF is currently being used as the assessment center for the ESA Cosmic Vision program.

List of assessment studies

A list of assessment studies accomplished by the CDF is:

List of reviews

Facility

The CDF design room was designed and equipped with relevant hardware and software tools, with the aim of creating an effective communication and data interchange environment among team members. In 2008, ESA donated its older CDF facility to the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, for educational purposes.

References

External links

*ESA CDF websit

*CDF published report

*RHEA Grou
RHEA Group Concurrent Design Engineering
*DL
System Analysis and Space Segments
{{European Space Agency Spaceflight European Space Agency facilities Noordwijk