Lessons Learned from the Application of Risk Management Process to SPORT CubeSat Project

The project implementation of a CubeSat System may have many risks which negatively impact aspects such as technical performance, system safety, cost, and schedule. To increase mission success, we may apply a risk management process. The Scintillation Prediction Observation Research Task (SPORT) CubeSat Project is a scientific mission to address the space weather problem of understanding the preconditions leading to equatorial plasma bubbles. SPORT is an international partnership between institutions from the United States of America and Brazil. The present research focuses on risk management activities from the point of view of the ITA Space Center in Brazil. There is some research regarding risks in Small Satellite and CubeSat projects. However, risks related to relationships among stakeholders, as well as organizational and external risks are not considered. A risk management process compatible with NASA’s handbook and procedures is presented. The results of the application of this risk management process during the final design and assembly, integration, and testing phases are assessed and results are presented and discussed. International partnerships increase the complexity of a project and have associated risks. Besides that, there are risks related to the acquisition of small satellite subsystems and components. For instance, the relationship with suppliers from the point of view of an organization in a developing country may present risks related to lead time, quality assurance, export, and import processes, as well as currency exchange rate variations. Another important aspect to consider is the importance of organizational factors and external risks and events which may impact the project. An example of an external risk event that severely impacted the project is the international pandemic. A risk management approach may facilitate communication and decision-making among international partners

The ITA Space Center and Its Role in Space Education in Brazil

This paper presents the ITA Space Center and its mission in the formation of human resources and in the research and development of space products. In 2012 the first aerospace engineers were graduated at ITA, and since then many efforts have been done to improve the engineering education. The first effort was the development of AESP-14 CubeSat project, then the development and launch of ITASAT, a 6U CubeSat. These two projects showed that small satellites projects provide a good learning approach once students were deeply involved in the development process. These two projects opened the opportunity for the creation of the ITA Space Center (CEI -acronym for Centro Espacial ITA in Portuguese). Inside its facilities the ITA Space Center provides capabilities for the development of small space projects such as electronics, software engineering, mechanical design, and simulation with the aid of systems engineering and project management. By means of the graduate and undergraduate programs the ITA Space Center is providing education and integration with the industries and other partner organizations. In developing and delivering space products, and fostering higher education in space, the ITA Space Center is accomplishing of its proposed mission