Dates
22 May 2026
9:00am – 10:00am PT
12:00pm – 1:00pm ET
Community
Physics of the Cosmos
How to Think about Mission Concepts: An Introduction to Concept Maturity Levels
Speaker
John Ziemer
Biography
John Ziemer is a Principal Engineer and Program Area Manager in the Space and Earth Science Strategy and Formulation Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over 25 years at JPL, he has worked on various flight projects, technology development efforts, and developing new methods to mature science mission, instrument, and technology concepts in pre-formulation. He is currently the Program Manager for PRIMA and Pre-Formulation Architect in the Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Maturation Project Office.
Abstract
Concept Maturity Levels (CMLs) are a set of guidelines, products, and best practices to help science and engineering teams develop mission and instrument concepts in pre-formulation, prior to Phase A. There are eight concept maturity levels through the project Preliminary Design Review and 6 dimensions that need to be considered equally: science, engineering, implementation, cost, story, and strategy as the concept matures. Using CMLs has been recommended by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Large Mission Study and the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics to define and mature a concept prior to any NASA commitment. They provide teams with a set of goals to reach at each level, setting common expectations, helping to eliminate silos in expertise, preventing extra work from diving too deep in any one area too early, and focusing teams’ efforts on developing required products in a stepwise fashion. This talk will provide a short background of CMLs that have been at used and are continuing to be improved at JPL and NASA for over 15 years. We will describe the levels and dimensions of pre-formulation concept maturity, including recommended objectives and products the pre-formulation team should produce at each level.
