Functional Safety Certification for Planetary Rovers: ARP4761 Explained

Date
2026-08-10
Location
Online
Host
Zach L

About this event

A Fundamentals Course for Safety Engineers pursuing functional safety certification. A live 30-minute fundamentals course on ARP4761 (Aircraft Safety Assessment) for planetary rovers, built for safety engineers pursuing functional safety certification. What We'll Cover: What ARP4761 (Aircraft Safety Assessment) requires and how its scope applies to planetary rovers Mapping ARP4761 clauses to the certification evidence assessors expect System-specific hazards and safety functions typical of planetary rovers Common findings that delay certification, and how to avoid them A practical readiness roadmap for safety engineers preparing for assessment Related topics: ARP4761 · Planetary Rovers · functional safety certification · functional safety assessment · Fundamentals Course · Safety Engineers

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About ARP4761 (Aircraft Safety Assessment)

This training provides practical skills and structured learning on the compliance requirements covered by ARP4761.

ARP4761 defines the civil aircraft safety assessment process and methods: FHA, PSSA, SSA with supporting analyses (FTA, FMEA, CCA including zonal, particular risk, common mode) demonstrating certification safety objectives.

What it regulates

Failure condition identification and classification (catastrophic to no effect), probability objectives per class (e.g., catastrophic ≤1e-9 per flight hour with no single failure), and the derivation of design/assurance requirements.

Who must comply

Safety departments of airframers and major system suppliers feeding certification (CS/FAR 25.1309 et al.).

Key requirements of ARP4761

  • FHA at aircraft/system level classifying failure conditions
  • PSSA allocating qualitative/quantitative requirements downward
  • SSA verifying the implemented design meets objectives
  • Common cause analyses: zonal, particular risks, common mode

Key concepts: ARP4761

1e-9 rule
The canonical catastrophic-condition quantitative objective per flight hour, combined with no-single-failure criteria.
CCA
The trio of analyses defeating shared-cause optimism in redundant architectures.
Failure condition classes
Catastrophic/hazardous/major/minor/no-effect driving both probability targets and DALs.

Frequently asked questions: ARP4761

How do ARP4761 outputs shape software work?

Failure-condition classes set item DALs, which set DO-178C objective sets; derived safety requirements (monitors, partitioning, independence) become explicit software/hardware requirements verified under those regimes.

Standard information based on the published text of ARP4761 (Aircraft Safety Assessment). Event content is provided by the host. For authoritative guidance, consult the official standard body.