Standards of Space Environment: Status report of ISO/TC20/SC14 Working Group 4 and roadmap

Since the beginning of 90's space environment international standards have been developed within the scope of WG4 ("Space environment") activities inside ISO/Technical Committee 20/Subcommittee 14/. This has been the first attempt to develop international standards of physical phenomena of natural environment. The main topics are: solar and geomagnetic activity, energetic particles and fields under quiet and disturbed conditions, space plasma, space weather, space debris, lunar and planet's environment. The topics also include definition of test conditions, procedure of risk analysis for spacecraft equipment and spacecraft itself and satellite operational guidelines based on the space environment information. The main difficulty faced when developing the international standards is the lack of common methods for characterizing many natural phenomena. However, if methods have been successfully developed, such standards can play an outstanding role in the engineering requirements for spacecraft designs. This report is a survey of the current status of the international standards under development within the scope of the WG4 activity plan and roadmap for the future.