Creation of a comprehensive global Space Risk Scale (SRS)

Abstract

There would be value in developing, on a global and systematic basis, what might be called a Space Risk Scale (SRS). Such a scale might be broken down into the six major categories of: (i) Public Launch and Re-entry Safety; (ii) Crew on Board Safety; (iii) Environmental Protection; (iv) Ground Personnel Safety; (v) Space Traffic Management (including the Protozone); and (vi) Cosmic Threats and Planetary Defense. Through liaison and risk updating this could be internationally agreed and applied on an on-going basis. Such as global Space Risk Scale (SRS) could aid scientists, engineers and policy makers in understanding and calibrating the many safety risks that are associated with space-based activities that could also include quite diverse public hazards such as cosmic threats, orbital debris, environmental pollution, or in-orbit or sub-orbital collisions. This is not the same as the European proposal to develop a systematic way to establish a so-called “zero space risk impact for space missions.” It is, however, a similar concept of having countries and commercial organizations agree to a process for objective risk assessments [1]. Going forward, organizations such as the IAASS might be asked to develop risk assessments for all types of space projects. The prime values of the SRS would be to allow: (i) legislative bodies as well as political and business leaders to assess the likely success of varying types of space projects; (ii) help insurance companies to assess coverage of space projects; (iii) create a means for objective risk assessment; and (iv) help various types of space projects to be engineered or re-designed to be safer.