Space crane lunar lander concept render.

Space Crane Systems Engineering Project

A systems engineering project.

Posted 06/20/2019

Background

During summer 2019 I took a systems engineering class. One of the assignments was a group project involving the development of a reusable lunar access vehicle. As the name of the class suggests, the project focused on the systems engineering aspects of such a vehicle — defining the problem through requirements and goals, creating CONOPS, developing mission timelines, creating interface diagrams and morphological matrices, etc.

concept of operations for a reusable lunar lander
Space Crane concept of operations (CONOPS).

I worked with two of my friends to create a concept architecture that we called the “Space Crane,” which was inspired, at least in design, by the Eagle Transporter from the Space: 1999 TV show. I created all of the concept architecture CAD in Fusion 360 and I designed the CONOPS diagram using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I helped out with writing some of the mission requirements and the mission morphological matrix. I also developed a project timeline based on timelines for NASA’s Altair and James Webb Space Telescope projects.

a labeled diagram of a concept lunar lander
a. Space Crane architecture.
a labeled diagram of a concept lunar lander's different configurations
b. Space Crane modularity.
Space Crane architecture and modularity.