Space mission engineering is the definition of mission parameters and refinement of requirements so as to meet the broad, often poorly defined, objectives of a space mission in a timely manner at minimum cost and risk.
Author Archives: James Wertz
James Wertz is president of Microcosm Inc. and an adjunct professor of astronautics at the University of Southern California. He is editor and a co-author of “Reducing Space Mission Cost” (1996), “Space Mission Analysis and Design” (SMAD — 1990, 1992 and 1999) and “Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD” (2011). He has taught a graduate course at USC on “The Design of Low-Cost Space Missions” for over a decade and has been the general chairman of the Reinventing Space Conference since its inception.Wertz is writing a series of Commentary pieces for SpaceNews.com on “Reinventing Space: Dramatically Reducing Space Mission Cost” that will address aspects of this topic including getting started, attitude, personnel, programmatic, government/customer approaches, systems engineering, mission design, launch, spacecraft technology, and operations.He can be reached at jwertz@smad.com.
