European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS)
Author: Paolo Mori
1. Introduction to ECSS Standards and needs of the industry
European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) was introduced during the ’90s to satisfy the need to have one set of coherent and agreed standards supporting the EU in developing space programs. Specifically, it was needed to have a common language that could help the space program development within the whole ecosystem including customers, suppliers, institutions, governments, and national agencies. Establishing a common set of standards to manage programs, product assurance, and engineering of space missions was a crucial requirement to make sure that all the involved stakeholders in the EU would be aligned on critical topics by relying on agreed rules known as standards. ECSS was developed by ESA and Eurospace which represented the European space industry.
It was adopted in 1994. In recent years, the space industry has grown significantly thanks to key factors such as technological progress, commercialization of the industry and new investments. With respect to what was seen during the first fifty years of space activities where institutional and governmental entities were the main actors, starting from the 2010s many new private players supported the industry growth to facilitate the access to space. SpaceX was the first private entity to approach successfully this new business model.
With the privatization and many new companies on the market, the ecosystem has become even more heterogeneous and the need to rely on ECSS is even stronger than before. With the current scenario in the industry, ECSS is a powerful tool supporting the interface between traditional stakeholders (ie. Institutions, governments, and space agencies) and new players such as private companies, start-ups, and SMEs. Of course, ECSS is dynamic to fully respond to the actual needs and adapt to the new challenges of the ecosystems. The set of standards is regularly updated to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with the latest technological advancements, best practices, and industry needs.
The branches of the ECSS are the following:
• Management (M-Branch): related to project management processes including but not limited to planning, implementation, lifecycle, risk management, cost and schedule management;
• Engineering (E-Branch): defining the standard engineering processes and technical requirements for space systems including system, electrical/optical, mechanical, software, communications, and control engineering. Operations and Ground Systems are also under this branch;
• Product Assurance (Q-Branch): defining standards to ensure the safety and reliability of space products. Disciplines of this branch are related to product/quality assurance, safety, EEE components, processes and software;
• Sustainability (U-Branch): related to space debris mitigation and planetary production. This was introduced in 2012. It represents an example of how dynamic the ECSS is, adapting to actual challenges addressed by the market and the industry.
As anticipated, ECSS introduced many important benefits in space program developments. Despite this, also drawbacks are associated with the application of the standards. In the next chapter, the pros and cons of ECSS application are presented. Furthermore, an analysis of the impact of modern tools on the ECSS application and development is reported.
2. Values and Drawbacks
In this part, a brief analysis of the main pros and cons associated with ECSS is presented.
Firstly, ECSS helps interoperability between different actors of different natures: by using the standards big
institutions can cooperate with the new actors in the space market. To achieve this, consistency is the key
principle and benefit. Furthermore, ECSS guarantees high quality having a strong focus on reliability and
safety. By relying on experience built on decades of space activity, standards have been adapted and
represent proven guidelines taking advantage of the lessons learned.
The lessons learned come from several challenging scenarios and programs experimented by the whole ecosystem during the previous sixty years of activity in both closer Earth environment and outer space. ECSS has been shaped by the experience
cumulated. This is why it represents a solid tool to increase the reliability and the quality of space programs.
To contribute to this point, ECSS has a strong focus on the processes supporting the alignment of all the
involved parties for what concerns documentation, testing, and verification.
One further benefit generated by ECSS is that it supports the development of new technologies. In fact,
designing and developing new products is critical and full of obstacles and unknowns. In this sense, ECSS
represents a solid set of guidelines to be followed supporting the sustainable and reliable development of
new technologies. Once again, the standards represent a strong aid and incentive for industries and
institutions to generate technologies and progress.
By looking at the whole economy of space programs, following ECSS is cost-efficient. Despite adopting ECSS
is expensive (as discussed in the next chapter), in the long-term, it is a money-saving strategy. It prevents
high extra costs associated with redesigns and failures due to inappropriate developments.
One final pro to be reported is that the introduction of ECSS increases the competitiveness of the European
Union in the global scenario. In fact, the key countries involved in space activity have developed set of
standards to support their space industries. ECSS aligns with many international standards which helps
European companies to be more competitive at a global level.
Besides many positive impacts, the application of ECSS involves some drawbacks. It is important to analyze
which are these points as the standards can be re-adapted in the future to be more efficient and optimized.
Being ECSS very detailed, it requires lengthy documentation and procedures slowing down the program.
This is not only time-consuming but it requires the involvement of many resources. Furthermore, the
bureaucracy involved in ECSS increases the administrative burden. Due to these reasons, meeting the
standard is a costly process impacting in a non-negligible way the schedule.
It is also noted that adhering to ECSS requires a significant financial effort to support the development of
the programs. The standards are strict and detailed. On one hand, as mentioned, this represents a plus. On
the other hand, it is costly as the companies are required to invest a large amount of money in generating
specific low-level designs and being aligned with the standards.
Furthermore, the high safety and reliability defined by the standards lead to excessive caution and overengineering. This implies that programs are characterized by a degree of robustness and redundancy that
might often be higher than what is necessary. This not only boosts the complexity of the projects but
drastically raises the costs.
As it was explained, it is clear that adhering to ECSS increases the non-recurring cost associated with the
development and, at the same time, the recurring cost due to the complexity and redundancy
characterizing the programs.
Finally, we mentioned that ECSS is adaptable to the progress and challenges of the industry. Despite this
being true, updating ECSS is slow due to the involvement of many players and institutions. Of course, this is
not positive also considering that the adaptation process is generally slower than the progress.
It is clear and known that much work needs to be developed to make the ECSS application process more
accessible, more sustainable and, smoother. Decreasing the cost and documentation associated with the
use of the standards shall be one of the major points to work on. This would make it more economically
sustainable and open to the smaller players of the industry.
The priority is evolving the ECSS to respond to the needs of the industry without losing the lessons learned
and the degree of reliability characterizing it. In the modern world, economic sustainability is key to every
project across different industries. This represents a critical point as in the space industry saving money is
often associated with less development, redundancy, and reliability. The challenge the space community
needs to face is therefore making the ECSS application a cheaper but still reliable process that could be
attractive and supportive to the whole industry. As it is explained in the next chapter, the use of modern
tools can support an optimization of the ECSS application
3. Modern tools and ECSS development
Modern tools such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are set to have a notable impact on the
application and development of ECSS. In fact, many drawbacks depicted in the previous chapter can be
largely improved by exploiting these innovative tools. Specifically, AI will improve topics such as heavy
documentation, time/money/resource management, compliance, decision-making, unnecessary
redundancy etc. In this way, the application and development of the ECSS will become more efficient and
optimized.
AI and Machine Learning will impact topics such as creating documentation, optimizing
engineering, and supporting AITV procedures to mention some of the most important ones.
Having reported the drawbacks of the rigorous and detailed documentation required by ECSS, AI can be
exploited to generate such documents saving time and resources. In fact, it can develop a more optimized
pack of documents avoiding unnecessary redundancy and robustness but guaranteeing a higher degree of
compliance and reliability. One further advantage in the use of AI is the traceability. Every steps, changes,
improvements in all the processes and documents can be easily traced and stored.
AI would not impact only the documentation but also the process and procedures. This is why it represents
a useful tool to support the generation, improvements, modifications, and applications of AITV procedures.
Again here the topic is related to optimizing efforts: saving time and resources while obtaining more reliable
outcomes. Furthermore, in the design phase, AI can automate parts of the process supporting compliance
more efficiently.
Thanks to Machine Learning, more accurate and detailed data analysis can be developed to increase the
reliability of procedures and documentation. This would reduce the possibility of failures.
Delving into all the advantages concerning the use of AI would require a deeper analysis not aligned with
the scope of this essay. For this reason, only the main advantages were presented. For the sake of
completeness, it is mentioned that AI would introduce tangible improvements also in customization,
compliance monitoring, and predictive maintenance.
It is remarked that the application of AI to ECSS raises important legal and ethical implications that need to
be faced and solved before standardizing the use of this tool. Ethical questions concern the safety and
reliability of AI that might eventually compromise space missions. In terms of legal implications, regulatory
compliance is crucial to be aligned with existing legal frameworks. Furthermore, liability for AI-driven
decisions is a recurrent topic.
To conclude, AI is a powerful tool that can largely improve ECSS application and development. Before
standardizing its use, it is necessary to regulate it and solve the ethical and legal challenges that are posed.
4. Conclusions
ECSS is an essential tool supporting the development of space programs across all the diverse players of the
European space industry. Due to the heterogeneity characterizing the European scenario, ECSS is
fundamental in supporting collaboration in space mission developments between institutions,
governments, companies, and start-ups. By adhering to ECSS, the quality and reliability of the programs are
guaranteed and the possibility of success is maximized thanks to the rigorous guidelines and the lessons
learned defining the nature of these standards.
Despite being a crucial tool, following ECSS requires strong economic efforts for all the players. ECSS compliance is costly due to the documentation, redundancy, design robustness, and rigidity implying a lot of time and resources. Therefore, the next developments shall redirect the standards to a more optimized and accessible version that can be more approachable to all the players across the industry. In this transformation, the advent of new tools such as Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning will play a key role since they represent tangible support in facing the challenges
characterizing the ECSS.
Applying these innovative tools will support the optimization of ECSS compliance by
improving resource management and resulting in even more reliable outcomes. It is remarked that ethical
and legal issues need to be solved before standardizing the use of AI in ECSS application processes