Journal of Space Safety Engineering最新文献

{"title":"Towards sustainable space: Assessing the contribution to the SDGs in aerospace activities","authors":"Matteo Bartolini","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The NewSpace industry represents a paradigm shift in the aerospace sector, transitioning from government-led space activities to a commercialized, innovation-driven market. While this shift has accelerated technological advancements and economic growth, it has also introduced significant sustainability challenges. This study examines the transparency and sustainability reporting practices of NewSpace companies, evaluating their alignment with global sustainability goals and industry best practices.</div><div>By analyzing 94 NewSpace companies, this research identifies the limited prevalence of sustainability reporting, with only 16 firms publishing non-financial reports. The findings highlight that companies most frequently address SDGs related to climate action (SDG 13), industry innovation (SDG 9), global partnerships (SDG 17), and clean energy (SDG 7). However, the voluntary nature of sustainability reporting results in inconsistencies in disclosure, clarity, and accuracy, making cross-industry comparisons challenging. Building on this assumption, we further explore whether introducing a new SDG goal specifically tailored to the unique characteristics of aerospace activities would be more effective in evaluating these companies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 811-824"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Front page","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00144-2","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00144-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Page i"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exponential law of reliability and its applications in some critical aerospace safety problems: Perspective","authors":"E. Suhir","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.08.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.08.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An intuitively justified and effective deterministic figure-of-merit, the exponential-law-of-reliability, is widely employed today, mostly in electronics and photonics reliability engineering, to assess the failure-rate and the time dependent probability-of-nonfailure of a material, device or a product. This law is, however, inconsistent: it determines the probability-of-non-failure, while the failure rate, the physical parameter it depends upon, is treated as a deterministic value. In this technical note we add the probabilistic dimension to this “law”, making it a probabilistic exponential-law-of-reliability. Such a conversion is done by treating the failure rate in its formulation as a random variable. Our main objective is to assess the accuracy of the existing, traditional, law, using its probabilistic interpretation, when predicting the probability of the occurrence of an actual random event. We have chosen the famous Tunguska meteorite event to do that. The analysis is limited to the case, when the failure rate of this event is a Rayleigh distributed steady-state random variable. The probability of non-failure, i.e., the probability of non-hitting the “target”, the Earth, sought as a nonrandom function of the random failure rate, obviously becomes a random variable itself. We determine its probability density and the probability distribution functions and apply them for the prediction of the probability and the corresponding time of the possible re-occurrence of the event in question. We have found that the most likely failure rate (mode) of the event, instead of its mean value in the traditional law, is by about 20 % less conservative, i.e., results in higher probabilities of non-failure, than the probabilistic law does. Future work should be focused on applying the suggested probabilistic exponential law to other critical aerospace-safety problems, and even beyond the aerospace safety field. This work should consider also other-than-Rayleigh probability distributions for the failure rates (such as, say, Weibull distribution), as well as the roles of the non-steady-state random failure rates, taking place in the infant mortality and the wear-out portions of the bathtub curve. Future work should also consider, in addition to the predicted probabilities of failure of the product of interest in the field, also the consequences of the possible failures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 598-603"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Design, development and qualification of a european international berthing and docking mechanism (IBDM)","authors":"Joaquín Meléndez ,&nbsp;Jeanette Bast ,&nbsp;Johan Bogaerts ,&nbsp;Jeremy Bouten ,&nbsp;Angelo Costantino ,&nbsp;Luc De Busser ,&nbsp;Rutger De Nutte ,&nbsp;Isabelle De Preter ,&nbsp;Andy De Wilde ,&nbsp;Felix De Wispelaere ,&nbsp;Filip Dewitte ,&nbsp;Wim Derkinderen ,&nbsp;Bert Dobbelaere ,&nbsp;Jürgen De Saedeleer ,&nbsp;Peter Eichenberger ,&nbsp;Nico Fleurinck ,&nbsp;Hugo García ,&nbsp;Herwig Hellinckx ,&nbsp;Lennert Jans ,&nbsp;Christophe Lauwerys ,&nbsp;Óscar Gracia","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.09.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.09.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The next decade will see a boom of space exploration, with a mix of government agencies, international collaborations, and private ventures committed to establish new international space stations, return on permanent basis to the Moon and bring humanity for the first time to Mars. In this scenario, the berthing and docking mechanisms play an essential role, as they act as the first point of contact, the connection between spaceships, and the gate every astronaut will pass through when moving from one vehicle to the other.</div><div>This paper presents the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM) developed and qualified by Redwire Space NV together with SENER and BGC under an ESA project. IBDM is an androgynous low impact docking system that is capable of docking and berthing large and small spacecrafts. The docking mechanism comprises an actively force-controlled platform called the Soft Capture System (SCS), and a structural mating system called the Hard Capture System (HCS). The IBDM SCS holds 3 guide petals with mechanical latches installed on the soft capture ring. The SCS is steered by 6 linear actuators (i.e. LEMAs) to allow the soft capture ring to move in 6 degrees of freedom, similar to a Stewart platform. The IBDM HCS ensures the structural attachment of the two vehicles by means of a set of 12 mechanical hooks (Hard Capture Hook Units). The IBDM also integrates the avionics boxes responsible for the control of both the SCS and HCS, by means of closed control loops comprising sensor data acquisition, algorithmic processing and actuator commanding phases.</div><div>During docking, the SCS platform is deployed and awaits for the target vehicle to approach. Following first contact detection, IBDM captures the target vehicle spacecraft by actively steering the SCS platform to align the mating interfaces and damping the relative motion. Then, the SCS is centered and retracted, bringing both hosting and target vehicles close together. Finally, hooks are closed ensuring hard mating and electrical connection are established. The tunnel is sealed and becomes the pressurized vestibule between the hosting vehicle and the target vehicle after mating.</div><div>This paper summarises the IBDM design, development and qualification, from the design inputs to full qualification. The IBDM qualification is described in detail, including activities to the qualification at component, equipment and finally at system level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 604-614"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Low-velocity impact test and simulation of thermal protection system insulation tiles","authors":"Dezhou Hu ,&nbsp;Runze Zhang ,&nbsp;Junbai Song ,&nbsp;Zhenqiang Wu ,&nbsp;Zhanjun Wu ,&nbsp;Lei Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Thermal insulation tiles constitute a critical component of reusable spacecraft thermal protection systems, with their structural integrity directly determining mission success and the safe return of the spacecraft. However, these tiles are highly susceptible to impact damage, posing significant risks to spacecraft performance. To understand the damage mechanism of multi-layer thermal insulation tile structures under low-velocity impact loading, this study conducts systematic experimental and simulation research on the thermal insulation tile assembly with a “heat insulation tile – strain isolation pad – cold structural metal plate” configuration. Drop-weight impact experiments were performed on the insulation tile assembly. Simultaneously, a refined finite element model was developed, incorporating the intrinsic material properties and interfacial relationships of each structural component. The simulation results accurately reproduced the energy absorption behavior and damage characteristics observed in the experiments. Specifically, the relative error of the absorbed energy is only 3.88%, while the errors of the crater diameter and depth are 6.06% and 1.23%, respectively. These small discrepancies confirm the reliability of the proposed numerical model. This research can provide crucial theoretical insights and technical support for optimizing the impact resistance performance of thermal protection systems in reusable spacecraft and evaluating their overall service performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 825-833"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Suicide risk and the spaceflight environment: A scoping review","authors":"Logan Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.09.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.09.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The objective of this scoping review is to pool together all available information regarding suicide in the spaceflight environment in order to summarize the findings in an accessible way, present data in a manner that is useful, and identify the questions that are still unanswered in this field. The PRISMA extension for scoping reviews informed the procedures of this review. Identified terms were searched across the PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus databases, as well as the NASA Database Open Data Portal, yielding 6049 initial manuscripts, resulting in a final selection of 0 relevant manuscripts. Secondary targeted searches resulted in 12 manuscripts that mentioned suicide in the spaceflight environment in some way. The suicide risk presented by the spaceflight environment may be thought of as a combination of general suicide risk factors present in the general population that may also present in the spaceflight environment, and separate suicide risk factors that are unique to the spaceflight environment. Though suicide is not a widely discussed risk for future space missions, some researchers have acknowledged it as a significant concern that should be addressed. This scoping review serves as a starting point for future research efforts to better understand and mitigate the suicide risk of the spaceflight environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 843-849"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"THE IAC 2026 ANTALYA","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00145-4","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00145-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Page iii"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"14th IAASS Conference","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00146-6","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S2468-8967(25)00146-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Page iv"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mission to Mars: How apheresis can solve space hematology challenges","authors":"Yamac Akgun","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.10.010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 581-583"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aerodynamic performance of nose cone geometries in hypersonic flow conditions","authors":"Ashish Narayan ,&nbsp;Bhupal Kumar ,&nbsp;Bimal Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.08.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jsse.2025.08.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Present investigation is the contrasts between spherically blunted and elliptical nose cones with Mach 5.8 in zero angle of attack conditions. This study aims to determine the most effective shape and parameters for reducing aerodynamic characteristics. Result shows that across aspect ratios from 1.2 to 4.1, the drag coefficient is larger for the blunted nose cone than for the elliptical nose cone. The inflow and shock development close to the nose region of blunted and elliptical nose cones for different fineness ratios are analysed. This sheds light on how they affect aerodynamic properties. The flow directions and recirculation zones near to the nose and base of the nose cone are represented by velocity vectors. The shock characteristics in front of various nose cone shapes are depicted by Mach number contours. The structural analysis is performed for safety by design for the failure mode with the elliptical nose cone at fitness ratio 3.6, in this case the factor of safety is found to be 8. The empirical correlation for the total drag coefficient is developed by considering the maximum pressure coefficient and fineness ratio. Results show that, at any fineness ratio, aerodynamic heating is reduced for the elliptical nose cone in comparison to the spherically blunted nose cone. As a result, the study confirms that elliptical nose cones, within the fineness ratio range of 1.2 to 4.1, are more advantageous than spherically blunted ones in reducing drag and heating in high Mach number vehicles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Space Safety Engineering","volume":"12 4","pages":"Pages 584-597"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}