Automating Spacecraft Analysis: The Era of Ontological Modeling & Simulation

Verification by analysis is a predicted compliance of a design to imposed requirements. The levels of performance specified by performance requirements can be related to Technical Performance Measures (TPM) in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment, but engineers performing verification by analysis are not commonly versed in professional Systems Engineering (SE) techniques or modeling languages such as SysML. As the formal application of Systems Engineering (SE) results in a diminution of time, effort, and money for large-scale projects, enabling technical engineers performing verification by analysis to contribute to MBSE improvements in the course of their daily work is financially incentivized. Ontologies applied to technical analysis methodologies are shown to improve the quality of verification by analysis activities while adhering to professional organization standards such as the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) SE Handbook and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) standard 7009A: Standard for Models and Simulations