System Engineering Process Realization Toolkit, Phase I

NASA faces many systems engineering challenges as it seeks to conduct exploration and science missions concurrently. One such challenge is implementing a repeatable systems engineering process to missions that vary greatly in scale and complexity. The same process applied to lunar and Mars exploration missions, for example, do not necessarily scale well to Earth science missions. Existing systems engineering tools do not adequately address this problem. They tend to be inflexible implementations of a "one size fits all" approach to process, and provide little or no interoperability with other tools used in the system engineer's workflow. Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. proposes to develop the Systems Engineering Process Realization Toolkit (SE-PRO). SE-PRO will broaden the capabilities for capturing, communicating, and implementing the systems engineering process, regardless of the size of the mission based on the ability to customize the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) approach to process implementation. The innovation lies in the intuitive graphical user interface that allows systems engineers to combine processes like CMMI, NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR's), and Goddard Procedural Requirements (GPR's), into a single process that is modifiable by the missions to specify the workflows, team assignments, and output products according to their needs.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.