(3) Survey data analysis

The CubeSat Mission Risk Survey results were collected in early November 2013. The total number of responses was 66, with 10 missions having more than one response and one mission not conforming to the CubeSat standard and was thus removed from consideration. The vast majority of missions were 3U CubeSats (29 missions) with the next most common form factor being 1U missions (16). The survey asked whether the mission had launched, giving the options listed in Table 1 below. The majority of responses showed that the mission had been manifested at the time of survey response.

Table 1 - Responses to Launch Question

Respondents were able to select multiple roles and subsystems in which they participated on the mission. These roles are shown graphically in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Additionally, respondents were asked to indicate how many years experience they have working on spacecraft. An overwhelming number (38) said they had between one and five years experience. The other categories, 0-1, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, and >20, all had between 3-7 responses as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 1 -- Role on Team Figure 2 -- Experience in Subsystems Figure 3 -- Years of Experience Response

Respondents were also asked about the mission's funding and were allowed to indicate more than one option. These results, along with the total amount of funding, are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5.

Figure 4 -- Type of Funding Figure 5 -- Amount of Funding

Figure 6 shows the breakdown of team demographic information. The x-axis represents the percentage of the team in a certain category while the y-axis represents the number of responses in that category. For example, the first bin shows 31 survey responses indicated their team was comprised of 0-25% professionals while 14 responses indicated 0-25% undergraduate and 26 responses show 0-25% graduate student involvement. Figure 7 illustrates the broad spectrum of managing organizations – from only universities to conglomerate relationships between universities, corporations, and government.

Figure 6 -- Team demographic information Figure 7 -- Managing organization breakdown