Conclusion: Risk-Based Innovation and Knowledge Management

This book has considered the dynamics of innovation in space science missions. Making Herschel an outstanding success was not a simple task and was not the result of a smooth and flawless process. We have addressed the essence of innovation and of technicity from a philosophical standpoint including tools and concepts borrowed from humanities and social sciences (sociology, economy, C-K theory, etc.). Specific patterns were applied to characterise some technological and social features of the creativity of scientists and engineers. The notion of an ‘instrumental community ’ has been coined and adopted in order to understand the effect Herschel had on the scientific field, using an original representation based on the bibliometric analysis of a co-citation network. While confirming the value of the approach taken by ESA in formulating its long-term plans, we conclude that the level of technology readiness and qualification was not a relevant discriminator for deciding to select FIRST /Herschel as a cornerstone of ESA’s scientific programme, demonstrating that an approach to technology readiness based on managed risk can lead to success and to an optimised use of resources in terms of scientific outcomes.