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7.5.3 “If I Could Do That, Then I Could…” System Engineering in a Research and Development Environment ‐ As Illustrated by the Evolution of the Space Shuttle Tiles
Author(s) -
Forsberg Kevin
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1995.tb01969.x
Subject(s) - space shuttle , schedule , space (punctuation) , tile , engineering , architectural engineering , systems engineering , construction engineering , computer science , aerospace engineering , archaeology , history , operating system
Researchers and Project Managers in a research and development environment often resist the notion that a structured process such as System Engineering can be applied to their environment. While it is impossible to invent to a schedule, it is certainly possible and necessary to use good engineering practices in the research and development process. System Engineering is one of these necessary engineering disciplines. To illustrate the use of System Engineering in its applications in R&D, this paper will follow the development of a new ceramic material from its origin in the research laboratories in the early 1960s through its application to the Space Shuttle thermal protection studies in the late 1960s and its production scale‐up as the Space Shuttle tile material in the 1970s, to its ultimate potential in the current exploratory studies as a matrix for repair of human bone in the 1990s. The author was closely associated with the material throughout much of its history. In the mid‐ to late 1960s the author was deputy director of the Materials and Structures Laboratory (where the material was invented by Robert Beasley) in the Lockheed Palo Alto, California, Research Facility. The author later became program manager of the Space Shuttle Tile Program.