It Depends Aero GmbH

RAMS Engineering from Concept through Deployed Missions

RAMS Engineering

In the space domain, mission success hinges on systems that must function reliably in harsh, unforgiving environments for long durations. At IDA, we bring deep expertise in RAMS engineering to support trade studies, architectural feasibility, and system design for spacecraft, payloads, avionics, and propulsion systems.

System Architecture Expertise

Our engineers have experience with safety-critical architectures, redundant systems, fault tolerance, and advanced subsystems including electric propulsion, guidance/navigation, and spacecraft avionics. From concept to mission operations, we embed RAMS thinking early to guide decisions that balance mission risk, mass, cost, and complexity.

Integrate RAMS early on

Unlike purely analytical consultancies, we do hands-on engineering. Working directly with design data, system models, and test results to ensure that RAMS requirements are grounded in real engineering behaviour. This integration between analysis and implementation leads to more practical, certifiable, and verifiable solutions.

Training and Mentoring

We provide training and mentoring to engineering teams, helping them understand and apply safety assessment principles effectively within their own development programs. This knowledge transfer ensures that safety thinking becomes an integral part of each engineer’s design mindset. 

Developing Assurance Artifacts Across System Levels

To satisfy both internal and external stakeholders, robust product assurance documentation is essential. We generate full sets of assurance artifacts — including hazard logs, reliability allocation tables, failure mode analyses, test plans and interface control documents. These deliverables feed into system reviews, design milestones, and ultimately certification or mission acceptance by space agencies or customers. Our assurance process is aligned with ECSS-Q-ST-30 (Dependability), ECSS-Q-ST-40 (Safety), and ECSS-Q-ST-10 (Product Assurance Management) standards, ensuring traceability from requirements to verification and validation while demonstrating that safety and quality considerations have been systematically addressed.

Certification, Mission Acceptance & Liaison with Authorities

When operating in regulated or mission oversight contexts (e.g. national space agencies, ESA, NASA, licensing authorities), it is critical to present a coherent assurance case. IDA helps clients prepare the safety, reliability, and product assurance packages needed for mission acceptance or certification. We act as the interface between engineering teams and oversight bodies, ensuring that your submission is clear, traceable, and in alignment with regulatory and organizational expectations. Our involvement de-risks the approval path and strengthens confidence in the mission outcome.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) for Space Systems

IDA applies Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) as a core method to demonstrate that complex space systems meet their mission reliability and safety objectives. FTA models are used to quantify the probability of critical failures such as loss of mission, loss of crew, or loss of redundancy and to validate architectural assumptions made during RAMS analyses. We build and maintain FTA models using leading tools such as:

Isograph Reliability Workbench (FaultTree+)
ITEM
CAFTA
Relyence
Arbre Analyste

Ensuring compatibility with both customer-preferred toolchains and agency data formats. Our approach is fully compliant with NASA/SP-2011-3421 (Probabilistic Risk Assessment Procedures Guide for NASA Managers and Practitioners) and ECSS-Q-ST-30-02 (Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis), ensuring that all models are developed in accordance with recognized space-industry methodologies. The results of these analyses integrate directly into system safety cases compliant with ESA, NASA, and ECSS frameworks, strengthening the quantitative justification for mission assurance.

Reliability as a Foundation for Safety Verification

Reliability Engineering

Reliability in space is not just a nice-to-have — it is a core input to safety and mission risk arguments. We carry out MTBF calculations, reliability predictions and optimizations using techniques such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Reliability Block Diagrams (RBDs) and Failure Modes, Effects (and Criticality) Analyses [FME(C)As]. These analyses feed directly into the safety case or Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), verifying that failure rates and redundancy strategies support the safety and mission success hypotheses. In short, reliability engineering serves to validate and reinforce the safety assumptions underlying the mission risk assessments.

Standards and Guidance

Our reliability analyses follow established aerospace and electronic standards, including:

IEC 60812 FMEA, IEC 61078 RBDs, IEC 61709
MIL-STD-1629A FMEA, MIL-HDBK-217, MIL-HDBK-338B, MIL-HDBK-217, MIL-HDBK-338B
ANSI/VITA 51.1, FIDES, Telcordia SR-332
NPRD and EPRD, NSWC Mechanical, and SN 29500

By integrating these standards and datasets into our reliability modelling, we ensure that all quantitative assumptions underlying safety analyses are robust, traceable, and defensible to certification authorities.

Human Factors in Space RAMS

Human performance is a vital part of mission assurance. At IDA, we integrate Human Factors Engineering (HFE) within the RAMS process to assess how operator actions, workload, and interfaces affect safety, reliability, and maintainability. Our analyses follow the Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) in NASA/SP-2011-3421, and ECSS-E-ST-10-11C on Human factors engineering. Using advanced HRA methods such as CREAM, THERP, and SPAR-H, we quantify human error likelihoods and identify mitigations early in design. This ensures that both technical systems and human interactions contribute coherently to safe and dependable mission outcomes.