risky_space_010110WASHINGTON -- There is no doubt. Space is risky business.
But mega-dollar
rocket explosions, planetary mission flops and glitches with satellites once in orbit are forcing space engineers to focus on what is acceptable risk and to create new tools to ferret out failure before it occurs.Theres no turning back from faster, better, cheaper space missions. NASA has been steadfast in trying to get the most bang for the buck. But sometimes -- like the recent back-to-back
Mars failures -- its all bang and bucks lost forever. 
Software glitch and poor test procedures likely caused Mars Polar Lander crash.
Failure to communicate
A new NASA report, "Enhancing Mission Success -- A Framework for the Future," was released last week. Authored by the space agencys chief engineer, along with an "integrated action team" of experts, the report said "there is room for improvement" at NASA, and the organization "must remain ever vigilant to minimize failures that are preventable."
The report stresses that faster, better, cheaper principles are valid if properly applied, but said NASA "recognizes that occasional mission failures will still occur."
Underscored in the 87-page document is the need to improve communication at all levels within NASA. "Failures in communication are an endemic problem that constantly threatens organizations, and particularly large complex organizations like NASA," the report said.
Additionally, NASA has begun working with both industry and academia to develop state-of-the-art tools and methods to shore up space mission successes.
Paper trail
NASA Administrator
Daniel Goldin is steering the agency toward spacecraft systems that can respond, adapt and evolve intelligently. "You cannot fix brittle systems with traditional approaches. We saw that in some of the planetary missions. We need to develop resilient systems that can mitigate risk by reasoning about their world, adapting to survive and achieve mission success," Goldin said at risk management meeting held recently.
| Learn More About Missions to Mars |
| Take a moment to check out SPACE.com's Special Reports on the Mars missions and major ongoing events and missions. Here you will find complete coverage, from interviews to animated visuals and interviews. For the Special Reports section, CLICK HERE . |
On occasion, past mistakes get papered over.
A problem with one of shuttle Columbias main engines during a July 1999 liftoff was found to have also happened a decade earlier.
"It was lost in the database" of millions of lines of code and millions of pages of paper in a space shuttle data morgue, Goldin said.
"Ten years later were relearning what we learned 10 years ago," Goldin said. "Something needs to be done," he said.
~
Adaptive smart systems that are imbued
with safe and reliable software, far different than software in use today, is critical and a high priority, Goldin said. "If you cant get to space safely and cheaply, you dont have a space program," he said.Milstar: Whats shaking?
Military and industrial space engineers have had their share of work woes too. Several spacecraft snafus were brought about by communication breakdowns.
For example, in April 1999, a Boeing-built Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) boosting a Defense Department missile warning spacecraft failed during flight. The satellite was plopped into a useless orbit. A later investigation determined that misleading drawing language on instruction sheets led a worker to improperly install insulation material, causing the failure of an IUS interstage to separate.
Milstar satellites have an expensive case of the shakes
In another case, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space work on the U.S. Military Strategic and Tactical Relay (Milstar) satellite series has been plagued by faulty plumbing. The expensive and huge
Milstar spacecraft have suffered structural vibrations across its tip-to-tip length of some 50 feet (15 meters).Thruster firings on the Milstar act like a waterhammer, setting up a shake through the satellite and impacting its performance. The expensive military spacecraft, in essence, got the jitters.
Worse yet, according to a source close to the program, the jitter problem was flagged early. However, documentation was tucked away in a file cabinet, discovered too late to avoid the technical snag in the Milstar spacecraft. The issue could have been avoided early in the program at a much lower cost, the source said.
Corrective actions have subsequently been taken, with another Milstar due to be lofted early this year.
Pendulum swing
The launch industry is rethinking its approach to mission reliability, said Sheila Widnall, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
"In the end, maybe its about people and habits of mind," Widnall recently said at a gathering of risk management specialists.
A former Secretary of the Air Force, Widnall said that procedures and habits of mind must be conceptualized in a form to be passed on to the next generation. "I feel a sense of urgency, for I believe that engineering systems can only become more complex," she said.
Both government and industry are coming to grips with risk management and assessment, said William Tosney, director, vehicle systems division for The Aerospace Corporations Space Systems Engineering Database Center in El Segundo, California.
"What were seeing is a re-swing of the pendulum to a more methodical, careful approach to acquiring and developing space assets," Tosney said. Spotting risk in the early phases of any space project is crucial. So too is finding areas where human factor issues wreak havoc, he said.
Unfortunately, Tosney said, there is a definite lag from the time organizations start to apply risk mitigating tools and procedures until these efforts truly impact projects.
"This is not going to turn around on a dime," Tosney said.
advertisement
