Risk management is a crucial step of any spacecraft design to ensure system functionality and mission success. Unfortunately, risk management plans are typically high level descriptions of risk philosophies or are too detailed for use on a student-built or otherwise low-budget spacecraft design. This research outlines a risk management plan for CubeSats by following standard industry methods of identifying risks, determining mitigation techniques, and tracking the risk progression between design milestones. The research demonstrates the missing, appropriate-level, detailed risk analysis by applying each step of this risk management plan to a 3-unit CubeSat built by a student team at The University of Texas at Austin. A descriptive step-by-step method of developing a risk management plan specific to the size range of CubeSats was presented at the AIAA Space 2012 Conference in Pasadena, CA. This methodology was then updated and refined to be published in the Journal of Small Satellites in July 2013.
The steps given in the AIAA and JoSS papers are based on the following table: