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Data-Oriented Modeling for Spacecraft Design

Nathan Strange

Abstract

Spacecraft development costs remain high despite falling launch costs, in part because Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools carry the complexity of the object-oriented programming paradigm: tightly coupled data and logic, mutable state, and rigid class hierarchies that resist integration with discipline-specific analysis tools. This paper presents a data-oriented approach to MBSE that adapts the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture from the video game industry. Design data is stored as immutable, format-agnostic components in a generic data system; stateless analysis functions operate on this data through templates and containerized tools within a continuous integration pipeline. A prototype implementation, VVERDAD (https://github.com/VisVivaSpace/vverdad-prototype), demonstrates the approach on an example interplanetary mission concept, showing how data-oriented principles can reduce deployment complexity, simplify testing, and preserve the traceability benefits of document-based systems engineering.

Data-Oriented Modeling for Spacecraft Design

Abstract

Spacecraft development costs remain high despite falling launch costs, in part because Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools carry the complexity of the object-oriented programming paradigm: tightly coupled data and logic, mutable state, and rigid class hierarchies that resist integration with discipline-specific analysis tools. This paper presents a data-oriented approach to MBSE that adapts the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture from the video game industry. Design data is stored as immutable, format-agnostic components in a generic data system; stateless analysis functions operate on this data through templates and containerized tools within a continuous integration pipeline. A prototype implementation, VVERDAD (https://github.com/VisVivaSpace/vverdad-prototype), demonstrates the approach on an example interplanetary mission concept, showing how data-oriented principles can reduce deployment complexity, simplify testing, and preserve the traceability benefits of document-based systems engineering.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 14 sections, 2 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The Problem: Object-Oriented MBSE
  3. Data-Oriented Programming for MBSE
  4. Entity-Component-System Architecture
  5. Preserving the Benefits of Document-Based Systems Engineering
  6. VVERDAD: A Prototype Implementation
  7. Implementation Language
  8. Data Infrastructure
  9. Project Directory as Data Namespace
  10. Template System
  11. Analysis Integration
  12. CI/CD Integration
  13. Conclusion
  14. Acknowledgement

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Video Game Entity-Component-System (ECS) Software Architecture
  • Figure 2: VVERDAD Continuous Integration Workflow