Collaborative Development and Cataloging of Simulation and Calculation Models for Space Systems

The application of modeling and simulation in the design, development and validation process of complex systems has significantly increased in the last decades. Creating high quality models is a time-consuming task. Particularly, if models should be shared and reused in future projects. In this paper, results of the project Simulation Model Library (SimMoLib) are presented that address the issues concerning the preservation of knowledge that lies within simulation and calculation models. SimMoLib provides modeling guidelines and best practices to help the developer to prepare models that can be reused in other contexts. Validation and verification of these models is covered by proposing a set of guidelines and two test frameworks as well as by promoting peer reviews of models by other experts. To archive, catalogue, and distribute models, a software framework is under development which supports the creation, management, retrieval, and utilization of models. In order to allow the collaborative editing of calculation and simulation models a simplified version control mechanism is established. SimMoLib is currently targeted to support the development of space systems. In the future it will be opened to other domains.