ESA review of equipment on ESA sponsored parabolic flights

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ESA REVIEW OF EQUIPMENT ON ESA SPONSORED PARABOLIC FLIGHTS
Mikhail Malyshev1, Vladimir Pletser2
1HE Space Operations B.V.; Support to ISS Utilisation Dept., ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands,
2ISS Utilisation Dept., Human Space Flight Dir., ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Aircraft parabolic flights provide repetitive short periods of reduced gravity and are used to
conduct scientific and technology investigations, to test instrumentation prior to space flights
and to train astronauts before a space mission. ESA is organizing in average two flight
campaigns per year. Maintaining safety during the campaigns is of paramount importance.
Two independent safety review processes are followed in parallel throughout the ESA
campaign preparation. Experiments are assessed by ESA engineers on one hand and by
Novespace and CEV experts on the other hand. The presentation is intended to communicate
to experimenters what is typically expected by ESA in equipment design, verifications and
associated documentation for compliance with safety requirements. ESA approach to safety
risk mitigation has its origin in Human Spaceflight programs and is based on application of a
minimum set of aerospace engineering requirements to payloads. It is explained how selection
of experiment set-up is impacting implementation efforts in equipment development when
encountering safety requirements, specifically for experiments planning to be repeated using
the ISS platform. An overview on application of the safety requirements to engineering areas
common for many experiments is provided (materials, pressurized systems, and electrical
functional systems). Clarifications are provided on what information is expected in
documentation to facilitate the technical review by ESA engineers. Some guidelines on the
hazard reports are given as they are seen as formal commitments from Investigators on
controlling hazards.