An MBSE Framework for the Feasibility Assessment of a Modular Planetary Sunshade System

The feasibility of a Planetary Sunshade System (PSS) strongly depends on architectural choices, system scalability, and controllability, among other critical challenges. Modular architectures offer potential advantages in terms of manufacturing, deployment, system robustness, and reversibility, while introducing significant challenges related to system integration and control complexity. This paper presents a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) framework for a traceable and parametric feasibility assessment of a modular PSS architecture. The framework links mission needs and objectives, functional analysis, high-level requirements, configuration-specific requirements, parametric sizing, and quantitative feasibility measures within an updateable engineering structure. The approach is applied to a representative precursor demonstrator configuration to show how system-level assumptions can be progressively connected to preliminary subsystem sizing and feasibility metrics throughout an iterative process. The application case includes the definition of a reference mission and configuration, preliminary sizing, required attitude and orbital control system torque evaluation, actuator feasibility assessment, subsystem selection, and preliminary mass, power, and communication budgets. Derived requirements are then connected to the corresponding sizing and analysis artifacts to support requirements traceability and future design iterations. The results provide a first quantitative feasibility assessment of the precursor demonstrator within the adopted assumptions. They indicate that the proposed framework can support the transition from high-level PSS concepts to configuration-level technical assessments, while identifying critical aspects to be refined in future mission studies and digital-twin-oriented developments.