Andy Quinn, MD of Saturn SMS, has completed his research on Suborbital Safety and has been awarded a PhD. The thesis is a culmination of five years of research for an Aeronautical Engineering Doctorate with the Air Transport Group at City University.
The outline was as follows:
The aim of this project is to examine how the early implementation of a Safety Management System can influence operators and design organisations in the commercial spaceflight industry. In particular, the research introduces a holistic SMS, and reviews different approaches. Due to the complexities of suborbital spaceflight, it reviews the Safety Case approach, including the Goal Structuring Notation methodology.
Throughout the research, frameworks were agreed with EASA and a European-based space tourism company, with the aim of providing safety management models based on gaps identified during the research. Additionally the research identified a gap in standard aviation/space safety approaches and a contiguous safety model was developed.
Watch out for further information and developments over the coming months. In the meantime the main points of the contiguous safety model can be reviewed in the paper presented at the 5th IAASS Conference.