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Accelerated technological innovation coupled with intensified worldwide competition drive the ongoing integration of analysis with design from the conceptual phase through final prototyping. The phenomenon dramatically redefines the roles and job profiles for designers, analysts, and engineers. Seven leading commercial companies with significant representation in the automotive sector joined with two leading Defense firms in the collaborative research program concentrating on the Super Designer and Up Front Simulation, organized by D. H. Brown Associates, Inc. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with each participant assessed organizational issues, cultural barriers, performance metrics, knowledge management tools and tradeoffs, and CAE data management from the perspective of each individual company.

The objective of the program was to architect a vehicle health management (VHM) system for space systems avionics that assures system readiness for launch vehicles and for space-based dormant vehicles. The platforms which were studied and considered for application of VHM for guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) included the Advanced Manned Launch System (AMLS), the Horizontal Landing-20/Personnel Launch System (HL-20/PLS), the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) and the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO). This set was selected because dormancy and/or availability requirements are driving the designs of these future systems.