I don't know that there's one. I think everything works together. I don't think there is one single answer. Let me give you an example. When I design a heater I thought this is the size heater I want. I talk to the science persons. They told me this is the type heater we need because we want to heat up in this amount of time. I come up with this heater design. Then I go to the power group. My goodness that's too big, that's too big. We don't have that much power. And so I have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a different design. Just because it works for science and it works for thermal doesn't necessarily mean it works for power. So we have to go through a process of finding a design that actually works. We're constrained by mass and we're constrained by power among other things.
Shonte Wright
Thermal Systems Cognizant Engineer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory