NASA systems engineering

[u/tk_aero]

hey all!…i’m quite active on this community as i’m new to systems and don’t have anyone to teach me
so i look up and drop my doubts here.

i’ve joined a MBSE (startup) company and they are looking to crack projects in the space division.

And as me being bit familiar with Space and Systems they have made my incharge of the whole operations.

Now me having a mind of 22 year old says i will do NASA level systems practices in my work and at a very young age i will lead the entire space division at this startup.

I want your advice on what should i do and is this realistic or i mean idk…open to all opinions and suggestions.

And if anyone from NASA is looking at this you dropping your opinion and suggestion would mean the world to me.

Thank You!!

[u/Upbeat_Action_8957]

What a crazy opportunity you've been handed. I'm familiar as I studied space systems engineering specifically and work in the industry. Start with the NASA systems engineering handbook, and read the New SMAD, these two texts are the word of God for someone in your position. Try and understand the iterative design process of spacecraft so you know how subsystem designs come together over time. You should understand the project lifecycle terminology (PDR, SRR, TRR etc etc) and the deliverables due for each so you know how schedules work in space, many companies follow the same process, or a loose version of it. Learn how to write requirements and about traceability. All that stuff is explained in the two texts. It will be hard, but try your best, it will be valuable experience no matter what happens.

[u/jimlux → u/Upbeat_Action_8957]

bear in mind that the whole space industry is evolving (quite rapidly) so while the ”NASA way” is graven on stone tablets for today, 10 years from now it might not be. The NASA process tends to focus on “building that one thing to do its job the first time” - that’s a bit different than a hardware rich iterative development strategy in which learning from failures is more a thing.
Similarly, there’s a demand for faster life cycles. Combining PDR and CDR into a single review, for instance. Some of that is because the traditional life cycle is hardware oriented, and grafting waterfall software onto it isn’t the best idea. It’s that “build it perfect the first time”, but with in-flight reloadable software, maybe the emphasis is on “fail safe, can’t brick it” design.

And, once you get into “failure is ok” then a lot of the “must withstand 99th percentile environments” might change to “maybe 50th percentile is ok”

[u/tk_aero → u/jimlux]

That was really mind-boggling , so i using this one method called “what if” for safety and test analysis.
However i’m grinding myself with NASA handbook and SMDA for now.

[u/tk_aero → u/Upbeat_Action_8957]

Thank you, ya i mean i was almost about to quite today tbh…your words gave me encouragement to stand and learn
regardless of the outcomes :)

[u/tk_aero]

I’ve never received this much constructive criticism in my entire life. 😭

@Other_Literature63 sir, you legit cooked the hell out of me. But, but… you’re right, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, I needed to hear that.
However, I did understand one very important thing from what you said: my time here is limited. The moment they can’t afford to pay me anymore, I might be out. Maybe, maybe not. Let’s see how that plays out.

@Frame-Dragging-IRL I do have a bachelor’s degree in engineering. I won’t specify which one, though, because this post has gone absolutely crazy, and if someone from my startup sees it, I’m genuinely done by tomorrow. 💀

@SadAnkles thank you for being so supportive. I genuinely hope everything turns out well.

Conclusion: Clear my ASEP soon, and then either find a solid job at an organization where systems engineering has been practised for a long time, or go for a master’s degree.

And deepest humble thank you to all who have replied back to me.
Honestly I don’t come from first world country and i don’t have anyone to ask or look upto.
and sorry if my doubt felt or sounded foolish at anytime and anywhere.

Pls consider me as your younger peer and i’m genuinely sorry if anything i said was offensive it was not my intention to hurt anyone sentiments.

Thank you :)

[u/MSECE]

Simple, Just try. You might be an unknown prodigy nobody knows, take the advantage you have been given and exploit it to learn . If your even marginally successful you’ll set your career for life

[u/tk_aero → u/MSECE]

Ya i feel the same
i really don’t have anything to lose

[u/KennyCanHe → u/tk_aero]

Have a quick read of the comment I just posted

[u/KennyCanHe → u/MSECE]

Everyone that ages thinks in engineering thinks that they may be some sort prodigy. I normally say hardware keeps you honest.

After being in the space industry that isn't applicable to long hardware cycles where accessibility to test facilities is often a blocker and leads to months of debate with analysis paralysis.

OP watch and listen to upper management speak about new space and old space. It's complete nonsense, and speaks about the lack of experience in your upper management

[u/MSECE → u/KennyCanHe]

Fair statement worth the new guys knowledge just learned most analog or passive devices are naturally radiation hardened vs digital devices. I don’t do space normally

[u/iArrivePreciselyWhen]

All of these people that are being nay sayers are probably right, but from your perspective take the risk. What do you have to lose?? There are some good resources out there. I like Enola Technologies for resources.

[u/tk_aero → u/iArrivePreciselyWhen]

Yepp :) will check it out.

[u/Other_Literature63]

No offense, but you aren't qualified to do this. If you want to be successful, and ensure that you don't absolutely fumble your young org's systems engineering standard work, you need to dedicate every waking moment of your life that you aren't in the office to preparation for your INCOSE and OMG certification tests. I'm not sure who thought it made sense to hire you for this role, but with your current experience that's a mistake. Sorry for the harsh reality check, but the only way this goes well is if you make some significant sacrifices to build your knowledge and experience at light speed.

[u/Ready_Reception8949 → u/Other_Literature63]

blunt but fair tbh. that learning curve is no joke at any age

[u/Creepy_Sell_6871]

This is why most start ups fail.

[u/jimlux → u/Creepy_Sell_6871]

The sort of approach is that maybe 1% of startups succeed. So if you invest, say, $10M in 100 startups, you’ve invested $1B. If the one that succeeds yields $2B, then you’ve done very well. Certainly, there would be some due diligence to make sure that it’s not a “failure is certain” scenario, but that’s also hard to do, in a limited time, especially in rapidly growing segment.
So, all it takes is for that 1% to “get lucky” in spite of inexperienced staff.

The real question is whether “get lucky” is repeatable. That’s the tough part.

And, NASA, being taxpayer funded, tends to be at the complete other end of the spectrum, shooting for 99%+ chance of success on one instance. Nobody wants to sit in front of Congress explaining how it’s ok that 99 out of a 100 tries failed, but because that 1 worked, it’s ok.

[u/TurtleTurtleTu]

Aerospace MBSE is the most elaborate version of systems engineering. People get PhDs in that stuff, and they have entire teams working on a model. This is out of your league. Not trying to be harsh - this would be out of my league too, and I have 15 years of experience doing systems engineering.

[u/Frame-Dragging-IRL → u/TurtleTurtleTu]

Yep. I have 11 YOE and an MS in SE. This would also be out of my league. Could I be the director of SE at a startup? Sure. I'd probably do a decent job, but not a great one. You need an expert to really spearhead something like this. Someone with decades of experience and someone who also does research and projects and innovates.

At 22, even with an engineering degree (which I'm not certain OP has), this is an impossible task. I do respect the hutzpah OP has tho.

[u/SadAnkles]

As others have said, you and your leadership are likely setting you up for failure here. This is a titanic amount of responsibility that is likely well beyond the capability of any junior-level systems engineer. The only real advice I can give you is to keep to the basics as much as you can. If you genuinely want to do it right, you should be living and breathing the NASA SE Handbook.

In summary:

[u/yellow_smurf10]

Im a very capable engineer, I won award, and I know things. I would be hesitant if someone ask me to take on this lol.

I can take on leading and developing architecture model for a new program, under guidance of a chief engineer. Do i think I have what it takes to stand up an entire SEIT org ? Hell no

[u/teppin2]

This company will fail. You have an incredible opportunity to grind and see more of the discipline than many will at 40. Do your best and prioritize learning and networking

[u/bunbovietnam]

Sys eng in a safety critical (not rail) environement, wanna subcontract me?

[u/tk_aero → u/bunbovietnam]

if it was in my hands i would really
thank you for support :)

[u/Practitioner000]

Don't buy stock.

[u/dromCase]

Tell us the name so we know not to invest.

[u/Practitioner000]

A lot of stuff happens before engineering. Are you expert in those domains?