The magnetic field plays a pivotal role in many fields of Astrophysics. This is especially true for the physics of the solar atmosphere. Measuring the magnetic field in the upper solar atmosphere is crucial to understand the nature of the underlying physical processes that drive the violent dynamics of the solar coronathat can also affect life on Earth.SolmeX, a fully equipped solar space observatory for remote-sensing observations, will provide the first comprehensive measurements of the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the upper solar atmosphere. The mission consists of two spacecraft, one carrying the instruments, and another one in formation flight at a distance of about 200 m carrying the occulter to provide an artificial total solar eclipse. This will ensure high-quality coronagraphic observations above the solar limb SolmeX integrates two spectro-polarimetric coronagraphs for off-limb observations, one in the EUV and one in the IR, and three instruments for observations on the disk. The latter comprises one imaging polarimeter in the EUV for coronal studies, a spectro-polarimeter in the EUV to investigate the low corona, and an imaging spectro-polarimeter in the UV for chromospheric studies.SOHO and other existing missions have investigated the emission of the upper atmosphere in detail (not considering polarization), and as this will be the case also for missions planned for the near future. Therefore it is timely that SolmeX provides the final piece of the observational quest by measuring the magnetic field in the upper atmosphere through polarimetric observations.

The concurrent engineering (CE) approach has been successfully applied to the early design phase of space missions. During CE sessions, a software support is needed to allow multidisciplinary design data exchange. At the moment, a spreadsheet-based solution enhanced with macros is used at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to create a system model of a space mission during the early design phase. Now there is an increasing demand to take advantage of this system model and provide data analysis features which improve the decision making during CE sessions. Since the current approach is limited for such analysis, DLR has started developing a new tool called Virtual Satellite. It offers extended software support required by the Concurrent Engineering Facility of DLR in Bremen. On top of the previous spreadsheet functionalities, it provides means for online data analysis and system modeling. The results of these data analyses are presented to the discipline experts using different views which help in performing an early design optimization. In this paper, the impact of these views on the decision making during the AEGIS space mission study is presented as a proof of concept.

Any effort which intends to physically interact with specific asteroids requires understanding at least of the composition and multi-scale structure of the surface layers, sometimes also of the interior. Therefore, it is necessary first to characterize each target object sufficiently by a precursor mission to design the mission which then interacts with the object. In small solar system body (SSSB) science missions, this trend towards landing and sample-return missions is most apparent. It also has led to much interest in MASCOT-like landing modules and instrument carriers. They integrate at the instrument level to their mothership and by their size are compatible even with small interplanetary missions.The DLR-ESTEC GOSSAMER Roadmap NEA Science Working Groups' studies identified Multiple NEA Rendezvous (MNR) as one of the space science missions only feasible with solar sail propulsion. Parallel studies of Solar Polar Orbiter (SPO) and Displaced L1 (DL1) space weather early warning missions studies outlined very lightweight sailcraft and the use of separable payload modules for operations close to Earth as well as the ability to access any inclination and a wide range of heliocentric distances. These and many other studies outline the unique capability of solar sails to provide access to all SSSB, at least within the orbit of Jupiter. Since the original MNR study, significant progress has been made to explore the performance envelope of nearterm solar sails for multiple NEA rendezvous.However, although it is comparatively easy for solar sails to reach and rendezvous with objects in any inclination and in the complete range of semi-major axis and eccentricity relevant to NEOs and PHOs, it remains notoriously difficult for sailcraft to interact physically with a SSSB target object as e.g. the HAYABUSA missions do.The German Aerospace Center, DLR, recently brought the GOSSAMER solar sail deployment technology to qualification status in the GOSSAMER-1 project. Development of closely related technologies is continued for very large deployable membrane-based photovoltaic arrays in the GOSOLAR project.We expand the philosophy of the GOSSAMER solar sail concept of efficient multiple sub-spacecraft integration to also include landers for one-way in-situ investigations and sample-return missions. These are equally useful for planetary defence scenarios, SSSB science and NEO utilization. We outline the technological concept used to complete such missions and the synergetic integration and operation of sail and lander. We similarly extend the philosophy of MASCOT and use its characteristic features as well as the concept of Constraints-Driven Engineering for a wider range of operations.

Today, phase A studies of future space systems are often conducted in special design facilities such as the Concurrent Engineering Facility at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Within these facilities, the studies are performed following a defined process making use of a data model for information exchange. Quite often it remains unclear what exactly such a data model is and how it is implemented and applied. Nowadays, such a data model is usually a software using a formal specification describing its capabilities within a so-called meta-model. This meta-model, often referred as conceptual data model, is finally used and instantiated as system model during these concurrent engineering studies. Such software also provides a user interface for instantiating and sharing the system model within the design team and it provides capabilities to analyze the system model on the fly. This is possible due to the semantics of the underlying conceptual data model creating a common language used to exchange and process design information. This article explains the implementation of the data model at DLR and shows information how it is applied in the concurrent engineering process of the Concurrent Engineering Facility. It highlights important aspects concerning the modeling capabilities during a study and discusses how they can be implemented into a corresponding conceptual data model. Accordingly, the article presents important aspects such as rights management and data consistency and the implications of them to the software's underlying technology. A special use case of the data model is depicted and shows the flexibility of the implementation proven by a study of a multi-module space station.

Concurrent Engineering (CE) in the space sector is an effective collaborative development approach for space mission architectures or system design. It involves each appropriate discipline and follows a structured process which guides the team through the early phases of the product life-cycle. Furthermore, integrated design models and domain specific tools support the engineers in generating and exchanging design parameters. As is often misunderstood, Concurrent Engineering is not a design optimization performed by advanced software, but is a team effort where the product development is supported by tools but decisions still made by people. During feasibility studies of space craft design within the "Concurrent Engineering Facility (CEF)" of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) there is a certain set-up of domains each dealing with their respective hard-and software tools. Within the present paper the cases of human-to-human and human-to-machine interaction during the iterative design process is discussed. The focus is set on the interaction between and within the different parties during both the plenary and off-line design sessions. The importance of guided communication and the value of specific and common tool utilization is pointed out. Furthermore, the challenges, constraints, potential improvements and stumbling blocks are identified when dealing with a heterogeneous team of experts in such early design phases.