Dates: 28-30 May 2025
Venue: Canadian Space Agency, Longueuil, Quebec (Canada)
To be absolutely safe, a system should never cause or have the potential to cause an accident; a goal practically impossible to achieve. For such reason in the development and operation of space systems, the term “safe” means acceptable level of risk. A space system is anything from a scientific instrument or an orbital transport vehicle to a space station or a Moon rover. A space system comprises hardware, software, and liveware (i.e., mission controllers, flight crews, ground personnel), having their own specific functions, capabilities, and limitations, and interacting to achieve the system purpose. The focus of this course is on teaching how system safety engineering techniques are applied to space projects to prevent accidents. Generally, in modern high-tech industries accidents don’t happen because the limits of human knowledge are exceeded, but because potential design, manufacturing, and organizational errors are not systematically prevented, and their risk adequately mitigated. The safety goal in a space program is to lower to a pre-defined acceptable level the risk of accidents, and to make available means and operational procedures to enhance human survival should they occur. The course provides also an historical perspective on the evolution of safety goals and requirements in space programs and on lessons learned.
