Week 16 · overview
Week 16: Capstone Phase 1: Mission Need and System Concept
This week, you will build capstone mission concept brief for a bounded Drone Engineering scenario. The work stays in classroom-safe analysis, supplied evidence, simulation, planning, and documentation. It does not authorize real flight or unsupervised hardware work.
The engineering problem
A community site needs evidence for a practical decision, but the team must define the mission without assuming flight approval.
The core idea is that a capstone starts with a real need, not a drone-shaped solution looking for a problem. Students will connect that idea to stakeholder need, product definition, system boundary, candidate platform, data plan, and risk boundary form the first concept of operations.
Evidence you keep
| Sequence | Evidence artifact |
|---|---|
| Lesson 1 | Mechanism explanation and first evidence table |
| Lesson 2 | Boundary note and no-go or revision condition |
| Lesson 3 | Review-ready decision table |
| Capstone Log | Capstone mission concept brief with limitation statement |
Vocabulary and decision lens
Important language this week includes: system boundary, evidence, limitation, no-go condition, revision rule, and capstone phase 1: mission need and system concept.
Decision lens: approve a concept only when the mission need is specific enough to choose evidence and reject irrelevant work.
Approximate time: 3 to 4 class periods, about 160 to 200 minutes of reading, analysis, evidence writing, and review.