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Company type | Non-profit organization |
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Industry | Space |
Founded | Noordwijk, Netherlands (April 2004 ) |
Headquarters | Noordwijk, Netherlands |
Members | 200 members from 25 countries |
Website | www |
The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) is a non-profit organization committed to furthering international cooperation and scientific advancement in space systems safety. Its aim is to advance the science and application of space safety. IAASS was legally established on April 16, 2004 in the Netherlands. It became a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in October 2004. [1] The IAASS is based on the intellectual interaction of individual members who together shape the technical vision of the association, and make the association services available to stakeholders (on a non-profit basis).
In June 2006, former US Senator John Glenn and first American to orbit became an Honorary Member. In June 2010, IAASS was granted the Observer status at the United Nations COPUOS (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space).
The association counts more than 200 professional members from 25 countries, 55% of the members are from industry, while the remaining 45% come from space agencies, governmental institutions and academia.
A 2005 report by the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) of George Washington University, titled Space Safety Report: Vulnerabilities and Risk Reduction In U.S. Human Space Flight Programs suggested that the newly formed IAASS might help improve the safety of the International Space Station (ISS). It also recommended NASA work with the IAASS to develop safety standards and advancement of space debris minimization and control. [2]
The first IAASS conference was held in Nice, France in October 2005. The European Space Agency sponsored the second IAASS Conference "Space Safety in a Global World" in May 2007 in Chicago. [3] The third conference was held 21–23 October 2008 in Rome, Italy. The fourth conference was held 19–21 May in Huntsville, USA. The fifth conference was held 17–19 October 2011 in Versailles, France, and the 6th conference 21–23 May 2013 in Montreal, Canada.
Space safety is defined as freedom from man-made or natural harmful conditions. Harmful conditions are defined as those conditions that can cause death, injury, illness, damage to or loss of systems, facilities, equipment or property, or damage to the environment.
This definition of space safety includes human on board, personnel directly involved in system integration and operation, personnel not directly involved but co-located, as well as general public. For unmanned systems such as robotic satellites, damages due to non-malicious external causes that translates into degradation or loss of mission objectives is also included in the definition of safety. For example, unwanted collision of a satellite with another satellite, or with a space debris. Fig.1 shows the various fields of space safety, their national, international or global scope of interest, and the principal means for achieving safety (by design, or operations), although a mixture would be generally used.
Although safety refers to threats that are non-voluntary in nature (design errors, malfunctions, human errors, etc.), security refers to threats which are voluntary (i.e. of aggressive nature such as use of anti-satellite weapons). In some languages a single term is used for both, which may sometimes be confusing.
Absolute freedom from harmful conditions is impossible to achieve. To be absolutely safe a system, product, device, material or environment should never cause or have the potential to cause an accident. In the realization and operation of systems the term safety is generally used to mean acceptable risk level, not absolute safety.
Acceptable risk level is not the same as personal acceptance of risk, but it refers to risk acceptability by stakeholders’ community or by society in a broad sense. Acceptable risk levels vary from system to system, and evolve with time due to socio-economic changes and technological advancement. Implementing proven best-practices at status-of-art is a prerequisite for achieving an acceptable risk level, or in other words to make a system safe. Best-practices are traditionally established by government regulations and norms, and/or by industrial standards. Without such reference the term safety, or acceptable risk, becomes meaningless. In other words, compliance with regulations, norms and standards represents the safety yardstick of a system.
The Journal of Space Safety Engineering (JSSE) is a quarterly publication of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS). JSSE serves applied scientists, engineers, policy makers and safety advocates with a platform to develop, promote and coordinate the science, technology and practice of space safety.
The journal has a distinguished Editorial Board with extensive qualifications, ensuring that the journal maintains high scientific and technical standards and has a broad international coverage.
The Space Safety Magazine (SSM) is a quarterly print magazine and a daily news website, jointly published by the International Association for Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) and the International Space Safety Foundation (ISSF). Space Safety Magazine [4] is focused on safety related issues affecting space as well as safety on Earth from space events and objects.
Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.
Safety engineering is an engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide acceptable levels of safety. It is strongly related to industrial engineering/systems engineering, and the subset system safety engineering. Safety engineering assures that a life-critical system behaves as needed, even when components fail.
Space technology is technology for use in outer space. Space technology Includes space vehicles such as spacecraft, satellites, space stations and orbital launch vehicles; deep-space communication; in-space propulsion; and a wide variety of other technologies including support infrastructure equipment, and procedures.
Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include the conduction of regular reviews of biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect from harmful incidents. Many laboratories handling biohazards employ an ongoing risk management assessment and enforcement process for biosafety. Failures to follow such protocols can lead to increased risk of exposure to biohazards or pathogens. Human error and poor technique contribute to unnecessary exposure and compromise the best safeguards set into place for protection.
Spaceflight is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflight operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The more complex human spaceflight has been pursued soon after the first orbital satellites and has reached the Moon and permanent human presence in space around Earth, particularly with the use of space stations. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station.
Risk assessment determines possible mishaps, their likelihood and consequences, and the tolerances for such events. The results of this process may be expressed in a quantitative or qualitative fashion. Risk assessment is an inherent part of a broader risk management strategy to help reduce any potential risk-related consequences.
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Space debris are defunct human-made objects in space – principally in Earth orbit – which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft, mission-related debris, and particularly-numerous in-Earth orbit fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, space debris includes fragments from disintegration, erosion, or collisions; solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft; unburned particles from solid rocket motors; and even paint flecks. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.
The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office is located at the Johnson Space Center and is the lead NASA center for orbital debris research. It is recognized world-wide for its leadership in addressing orbital debris issues. The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has taken the international lead in conducting measurements of the environment and in developing the technical consensus for adopting mitigation measures to protect users of the orbital environment. Work at the center continues with developing an improved understanding of the orbital debris environment and measures that can be taken to control its growth.
Human error is an action that has been done but that was "not intended by the actor; not desired by a set of rules or an external observer; or that led the task or system outside its acceptable limits". Human error has been cited as a primary cause contributing factor in disasters and accidents in industries as diverse as nuclear power, aviation, space exploration, and medicine. Prevention of human error is generally seen as a major contributor to reliability and safety of (complex) systems. Human error is one of the many contributing causes of risk events.
A near miss, near death, near hit, close call is an unplanned event that has the potential to cause, but does not actually result in human injury, environmental or equipment damage, or an interruption to normal operation.
Environmental governance (EG) consists of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices that dictate how the board members of an environment related regulatory body should manage and oversee the affairs of any environment related regulatory body which is responsible for ensuring sustainability (sustainable development) and manage all human activities—political, social and economic. Environmental governance includes government, business and civil society, and emphasizes whole system management. To capture this diverse range of elements, environmental governance often employs alternative systems of governance, for example watershed-based management. Obviously, in fact the EG arrangements are very diversed and not at all as inclusive as we could wish them to be.
ISO 26262, titled "Road vehicles – Functional safety", is an international standard for functional safety of electrical and/or electronic systems that are installed in serial production road vehicles, defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2011, and revised in 2018.
Donald J. Kessler is an American astrophysicist and former NASA scientist known for his studies regarding space debris.
Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work. OSH is related to the fields of occupational medicine and occupational hygiene and aligns with workplace health promotion initiatives. OSH also protects all the general public who may be affected by the occupational environment.
Diver training is the set of processes through which a person learns the necessary and desirable skills to safely dive underwater within the scope of the diver training standard relevant to the specific training programme. Most diver training follows procedures and schedules laid down in the associated training standard, in a formal training programme, and includes relevant foundational knowledge of the underlying theory, including some basic physics, physiology and environmental information, practical skills training in the selection and safe use of the associated equipment in the specified underwater environment, and assessment of the required skills and knowledge deemed necessary by the certification agency to allow the newly certified diver to dive within the specified range of conditions at an acceptable level of risk. Recognition of prior learning is allowed in some training standards.
The Space Safety Programme, formerly the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme, is the European Space Agency's (ESA) initiative to monitor hazards from space, determine their risk, make this data available to the appropriate authorities and where possible, mitigate the threat.
Diving safety is the aspect of underwater diving operations and activities concerned with the safety of the participants. The safety of underwater diving depends on four factors: the environment, the equipment, behaviour of the individual diver and performance of the dive team. The underwater environment can impose severe physical and psychological stress on a diver, and is mostly beyond the diver's control. Equipment is used to operate underwater for anything beyond very short periods, and the reliable function of some of the equipment is critical to even short-term survival. Other equipment allows the diver to operate in relative comfort and efficiency, or to remain healthy over the longer term. The performance of the individual diver depends on learned skills, many of which are not intuitive, and the performance of the team depends on competence, communication, attention and common goals.
A pesticide, also called Plant Protection Product (PPP), which is a term used in regulatory documents, consists of several different components. The active ingredient in a pesticide is called “active substance” and these active substances either consist of chemicals or micro-organisms. The aims of these active substances are to specifically take action against organisms that are harmful to plants. In other words, active substances are the active components against pests and plant diseases.
Space sustainability aims to maintain the safety and health of the space environment.