Factors Contributing to Space SystemFailures and Successes

摘要

Processes and procedures, concepts, requirements, and design specifications, and design andrnproductions standards are necessary but not always sufficient for building a robust space system.rnThese entities are only documentation and not knowledge. The preponderance of these entitiesrnare success-centric and are created from within the system. That is, they generally do notrnprovide enough emphasis on addressing what can go wrong and they are limited by thernknowledge of the people developing the system.rnThis paper is divided into three parts. The first part examines specific occurrences of spacernmission degradation, failure and recovery. These examples will illustrate the notion thatrnanything can go wrong in a space mission, but a robust design and ingenious work-arounds canrnoften save the mission. The second part provides examples of recovery from failures. The thirdrnpart provides an overview of six methodologies that are critical to building a robust system.rnThese methodologies should be standard practices in any program, but can be overlooked orrnunder-worked when a program first encounters the prospect of missed milestones andrninsufficient funding.