The European Space Agency (ESA) has asked DNV to assist with the establishment of ground segment safety requirements for future manned space missions. DNV has previously been involved with several other projects for ESA, and this project builds further on DNV's wide competence on safety.

“The safety aspect is central within the space industry, and now DNVs core competence is in demand also within this industry,” says DNV’s Narve Mjøs, who is responsible for DNV’s space activities.

“A primary task is to compare state-of-practice safety requirements for space and non-space applications,” says DNV’s project manager Frode Høgberg.

The safety aspect is central within the space industry, just as it is within for instance the maritime, offshore, aviation and nuclear industries.

The establishment of ground segment safety requirements for future manned space missions will be carried out on behalf of the European Space Research and Technology Centre – ESTEC – and covers requirements related to hardware, software, systems and operations. The contract is due to be completed by the end of 2007.

“DNV has wide competence on safety issues from a range of industries, and now our core competence is in demand also in the space industry,” explains DNV’s Narve Mjøs. He is responsible for DNV’s space activities.

“We will collaborate closely with ESA's professionals in this project,” says Frode Høgberg who is project manager for the project, which is divided into four tasks:

1. 1. Review of current ESA safety requirements for the ground segment.
2. Review of safety requirements in other safety critical industries, such as aviation and offshore, in order to establish best industry practices.
3. Identify needs for future space missions. Future missions, for example missions to Mars, will result in additional requirements compared to those of current missions, such as the International Space Station.
4. Define ESA safety requirements based on existing requirements, best practices across industries and future space mission needs.

“A primary task is to compare state-of-practice safety requirements for space and non-space applications. We can see that the study will provide valuable insight into best cross-industry practices relating to safety requirements. This is knowledge that should be of interest to other industries as well,” states Narve Mjøs.

Different challenges
A space mission to Mars may last for up to two years, and the challenges involved will be entirely different to those linked to the shorter missions to the international space station and the moon. The starting point for DNV’s work will be ESA's own descriptions of its future manned missions. A lot of software will be used on these journeys – and there will be a lot of interaction with the operators.

“The scenarios provided by ESA will tell us if there is a need to amend the safety requirements,” says Frode Høgberg, adding that the operator-machine interface also will be looked into during the project.