Providing hardware for the astronauts to use on board the Space Shuttle or International Space Station (ISS) involves a certification process that entails evaluating hardware safety, weighing risks, providing mitigation, and verifying requirements. Upon completion of this certification process, the hardware is deemed safe to fly. This process from start to finish can be completed as quickly as 1 week or can take several years in length depending on the complexity of the hardware and whether the item is a unique custom design. One area of cost and schedule savings that NASA implements is buying Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) hardware and certifying it for human spaceflight as safe to fly. By utilizing commercial hardware, NASA saves time not having to develop, design and build the hardware from scratch, as well as a timesaving in the certification process. By utilizing COTS hardware, the current detailed certification process can be simplified which results in schedule savings. Cost savings is another important benefit of flying COTS hardware. Procuring COTS hardware for space use can be more economical than custom building the hardware. This paper will investigate the cost savings associated with certifying COTS hardware to NASA s standards rather than performing a custom build.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Safe to Fly: Certifying COTS Hardware for Spaceflight


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    41st International Conference on Environmental Systems ; 2011 ; Portland, OR, United States


    Publication date :

    2011-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    ENCLOSURE FOR SPACEFLIGHT HARDWARE

    RASHFORD ROBERT A / RICHARDS PAUL W / TOLMAN CHRISTOPHER et al. | European Patent Office | 2021

    Free access

    ENCLOSURE FOR SPACEFLIGHT HARDWARE

    RASHFORD ROBERT A / RICHARDS PAUL W / TOLMAN CHRISTOPHER et al. | European Patent Office | 2022

    Free access

    Certifying Emergency Landing for Safe Urban UAV

    Guerin, Joris / Delmas, Kevin / Guiochet, Jeremie | IEEE | 2021


    Enclosure for spaceflight hardware

    RASHFORD ROBERT A / RICHARDS PAUL W / TOLMAN CHRISTOPHER et al. | European Patent Office | 2022

    Free access