Applying MBSE to Data Handling System Design of a Small Satellite Platform for Multiple Missions

Model-based approaches to system design become more and more established in the space domain, as they promise to increase efficiency and reliability of the design process. This paper presents initial experience in adopting a model-based approach to the systems engineering of the data handling system for a small satellite platform. The goal was to increase engineering efficiency in order to allow the design of two variants of a system to address two different missions in parallel, but with the same team strength. The scope of the paper covers the definition of the MBSE methodology to use and its application to the preliminary design of the data handling system.