Decision Gate Process for Assessment of a Technology Development PortfolioThe NASA Dust Management Project (DMP) was established to provide technologies (to TRL 6 development level) required to address adverse effects of lunar dust to humans and to exploration systems and equipment, which will reduce life cycle cost and risk, and will increase the probability of sustainable and successful lunar missions. The technology portfolio of DMP consisted of different categories of technologies whose final product is either a technology solution in itself, or one that contributes toward a dust mitigation strategy for a particular application. A Decision Gate Process (DGP) was developed to assess and validate the achievement and priority of the dust mitigation technologies as the technologies progress through the development cycle. The DGP was part of continuous technology assessment and was a critical element of DMP risk management. At the core of the process were technology-specific criteria developed to measure the success of each DMP technology in attaining the technology readiness levels assigned to each decision gate. The DGP accounts for both categories of technologies and qualifies the technology progression from technology development tasks to application areas. The process provided opportunities to validate performance, as well as to identify non-performance in time to adjust resources and direction. This paper describes the overall philosophy of the DGP and the methodology for implementation for DMP, and describes the method for defining the technology evaluation criteria. The process is illustrated by example of an application to a specific DMP technology.
Document ID
20120013467
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Kohli, Rajiv (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Fishman, Julianna (Jacobs Technology, Inc. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Hyatt, Mark (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
September 11, 2012
Subject Category
Administration And Management
Report/Patent Number
JSC_CN-26797
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA Space 2012
Location: Pasadena, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: September 11, 2012
End Date: September 14, 2012
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics