Scientist-engineering interactions across the project lifecycle

The roles and responsibilities of a Principal Investigator (PI) and/or Project Scientist (PS) and the Project Systems Engineer (PSE) on a NASA mission change across the project lifecycle, as do the nature and focus of their interactions. There are also interactions between the Investigation Scientist (IS) and the Payload System Engineer (PLSE) and Flight System Systems Engineer (FSSE). In order to achieve the best results for the mission, the interactions between the science community and the engineering community need to be rich, focused and frequent. In this paper, the author describes the roles and responsibilities of the PI, PS, IS, PSE, PLSE and FSSE, and the nature of the interactions between them in each phase of the lifecycle. She also describes the primary focus of each role in each phase, and gives specific examples and anecdotes of how solid interactions addressed key issues in a timely, productive manner. The paper concludes with some insights and recommendations for scientist-engineering interactions.