Evaluation of Preliminary Design Review (PDR) formats in student space projects

In anyengineering project, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is a major milestone. The design is presented to non-project members who provide feedback. This feedback is used by the team to incorporate in the detailed design. The review can be done using written documentation and/or an oral presentation.Student space projects often have a tight timeline which imposes constraints on the PDR process. Depending on this timeline and the availability of team members and reviewers, the PDR can be done in several ways. Variations can be made in: level of detail in documentation beforehand, the time between sending documentation and PDR, the format of the feedback and the implementation of the feedback.The article originates from the widely varying PDR formats the authors experienced in different student space projects. Within Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) a PDR was held on both the Stratos III and Stratos IV student-built sounding rockets. Furthermore, a PDR on the Supersonic Parachute Experiment Aboard REXUS (SPEAR) mission was held both within DARE internally and within the REXUS/BEXUS program.In the article, the pros and cons of the various formats are discussed together with their applications. As cases,the REXUS/BEXUS and DARE PDR formats are compared to each other and the ESCC standard.