Risk, safety, reliability and satellites: chronicles of a fragmented research field

Space operations are inherently complex. By reviewing over thirty years of literature on risk, safety and reliability management in relation to satellites, this paper offers an extensive meta-analysis which aims at analysing the research field through meaningful arrangements of its key contributions. The analysis adopts a data mining perspective to review about 3900 documents through bibliometric indicators, i.e., citations and co-citations. Combining quantitative meta-analysis with Factor Analysis, this document aims to holistically summarize the main contributions in the field of risk, safety, and reliability in relation to satellites, in line with a multi-disciplinary perspective. Besides contributions about risk, safety and reliability per se (i.e., risk approaches related to the development and management of satellite), the field is largely concerned with risk, safety and reliability as products (i.e., the usage of satellite data to cope with a variety of risk and safety problems). On this path, especially about risk, safety and reliability per se area, this research suggests future research paths, implying an active collaboration between academia and industrial practice. Particular reference is devoted to the benefits of: (i) expanding space research with systematic and publicly shared repositories for reliability purposes, following large-scale examples from aviation, and a minor database about CubeSats; (ii) extending purely technological research focus with socio-technical aspects; (iii) considering the added value of a dedicated scientific source to collect and publish high-quality research in the field.