The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) is the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

main assessment center for future

space mission Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in o ...

s and industrial review. Located at

ESTEC The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, al ...

, ESA's technical center in

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the former municipality of Noordwij ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, it has been operational since early 2000. As suggested by its name, the CDF uses

concurrent engineering Concurrent engineering (CE) or concurrent design and manufacturing is a work methodology emphasizing the parallelization of tasks (i.e. performing tasks concurrently), which is sometimes called simultaneous engineering or integrated product develo ...

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 The International Space University (ISU) is dedicated to the discovery, research, and development of outer space and its applications for peaceful purposes, through international and multidisciplinary education and research programs. ISU was f ...

(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 Noordwijk