Cross-Domain Comparison of Design Factors in System Design and Analysis of Space and Transportation Systems

Transportation, an infrastructure-focused domain, and Space, a less infrastructure-focused domain, are compared according to five design factors: mission objective(s), stakeholders, concepts, constraints, and dynamic lifecycle issues. The comparison uncovers domain-inherent biases in decision and design methods originating in both domains. Causes for domain biases and implications for a domain-independent decision and design method are discussed. The goal of this research is to make system designers more sensitive to domain-inherent biases and thus help facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing across domains. Facing changing contexts and value perceptions, system designers increasingly face seemingly new issues and can learn from other domains where these issues have already been addressed.