Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine January 2018 - 6

Feature Article:

DOI. No. 10.1109/MAES.2018.160212

From Project Management to Planetary Defense:
Implementation of a Systems Engineering Approach Using
Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD)
Alaa Adnan Hussein, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK and the International Space
University (ISU), Houston, TX, USA
Jackelynne Silva-Martinez, International Space University (ISU), Houston, TX, USA
Thomas Wilson, University College London, UK

INTRODUCTION

MANAGERIAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

Thirty-four participants from seventeen countries participated in
the Planetary Defense Team Project at the International Space
University's 2015 Space Studies Program (ISU-SSP15) to find
solutions for short-term warning cosmic threats. The team spent
nine weeks working intensively on departmental and lecture activities alongside this project. Space agencies and institutions
around the world have discussed cosmic threats, including planetary defense. However, not enough attention has been given to
a potentially catastrophic event; what has been done is limited to
possible long-term cosmic threats. Having no specific pathway
on how to tackle this global challenging task at the beginning
of the project, the Integrated Product and Process Development
(IPPD) methodology was used to enable the team to identify
main elements of the project, starting from developing the mission statement, needs and requirements, and to proposing solutions to planetary defense. These elements include detection and
tracking, deflection, collaboration, outreach and education, evacuation and recovery.

Authors' addresses: A. A. Hussein, Industrial Informatics and
Signal Processing Group (IISP), Department of Engineering
and Design, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QT, and The
International Space University (ISU), E-mail: A.Hussein@sussex.ac.uk, J. Silva-Martinez, The International Space University
(ISU), Houston, TX 77058, USA, E-mail: j.silva-martinez@
community.isunet.edu, T. Wilson, Astrophysics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London
(UCL), London, NW1 2PS, UK, E-mail: tgw@star.ucl.ac.uk.
The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the
International Space University (ISU) for organizing the 28th
Space Studies Program (SSP15), and the NASA Science Mission Directorate as well as the Aerospace Corporation for their
sponsorship of the Planetary Defense Team Project.
Manuscript received October 9, 2016, revised January 15, 2017,
and ready for publication April 29, 2017.
Review handled by R. Wang.
0885/8985/17/$26.00 © 2018 IEEE
6

The project faced many challenges, ranging from the complexity of the topic itself, unclear goals and limitations, to the need
of completing the project in a short period of time and meeting
project deliverables. Additionally, a large team of people with diverse professional and cultural backgrounds working on such a
complex topic had to be organized and adapted to collaborate and
work in close cooperation to obtain the results and recommendations. Initially, due to having no specific pathway on how to tackle
planetary defense, a challenging global task, the IPPD approach to
systems engineering was used for the management of the Planetary
Defense Team Project at ISU-SSP15. The smooth execution of the
project was possible thanks to effective project management. This
included understanding the stakeholders needs, defining requirements, deriving and assigning tasks; keeping the team motivated
by having ownership of tasks and showing accountability for their
completion; keeping track of action items status; tracking performance against a set of requirements, and through verification and
validation of our proposed solutions with current technologies; and
meeting project milestones within specified timelines.

PLANETARY DEFENSE PROJECT IN ISU ENVIRONMENT
The ISU specializes in research and teaching students a holistic
approach to space in an international, interdisciplinary, and intercultural educational philosophy (the 3-I's) through its seven
departments. These cover space engineering, space applications,
space science, human performance in space, space humanities,
space management and business, and space policy, economics, and
law. ISU was founded in 1987 at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. ISU currently offers a Master of Space Studies, Space
Studies Program (SSP), Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program, and Executive Space Course. Every year, SSP is hosted at
different universities and institutions around the world. It is a residential nine-week intensive professional development program designed to educate future space leaders. It provides a critical component of social and professional interaction and integration through

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

JANUARY 2018

http://A.Hussein@sussex.ac.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine January 2018