Risk Assessment in Concurrent Engineering of Space Missions

This paper describes an approach to risk assessment in concurrent engineering of space missions. The approach employs expert judgement, qualitative and quantitative analysis methods to deliver a complete space mission risk assessment tailored to the conceptual design stage. The approach combines expert consultation with the use of an in-house risk database tool, the Space System Technical Risk Database (SSYSTER). Risk assessment at concept level allows to mitigate risk from an early design stage which has substantial cost saving implications while also contributing to the continuous risk management process during design.