CNN/AP: Switches Installed Backward Doomed Genesis Space Probe

Backward switches doomed probe
Genesis slammed to Earth after parachutes failed
Wednesday, June 14, 2006


Scientists study pieces from NASA's Genesis probe after it crashed into the Utah desert in 2004.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A report released Tuesday blamed a design flaw for the 2004 crash of a NASA space probe carrying solar wind atoms back to Earth and criticized engineers for failing to detect the error.

The 231-page document prepared by independent investigators found that gravity switches on the Genesis probe designed to trigger the deployment of its parachutes were installed backward.

Genesis' chutes never opened and it slammed into the Utah desert on September 8, 2004, after a three-year mission collecting microscopic solar wind particles that scientists hoped would provide clues to the origins of the solar system.

Investigators found that the probe's builder, Lockheed Martin, skipped a critical pre-launch test that would have uncovered the fatal flaw because of time constraints. Instead, engineers decided to do a simpler test by comparing Genesis' design to drawings of another spacecraft, Stardust, which was built earlier and had passed rigorous testing....

***

The report also said lack of oversight by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed the $264 million mission, caused the error to remain undetected from the design phase to the review stage. Investigators also faulted the space agency's "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy for creating an environment where cost issues were put ahead of a successful mission....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/06/14/genesis.crash.ap/index.html

Bozos! They'll try to blame the engineers and the assemblers, too.

"Investigators also faulted the space agency's "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy for creating an environment where cost issues were put ahead of a successful mission...."

How many more failed missions and dead bodies will it take to change this policy at NASA?

Right now, they rely on the providers to police themselves. That is like having Enron regulate the oil industry, John Bolton represent us at the UN and Anderson audit its own work on its largest clients.

Wait. that is what happened. damn.

are the ultimate cause of the crash.

and cause of homelessness, food stamp cuts, firefithter cuts, and a third of our bridges in need of repair.

Trickledown is a flop.

Hoover's trickledown caused the Great Depression.

toss trickledown.

and "cheaper, faster" doesn't work for this type of work.

the Hubble screwup wasn't under "faster, better, cheaper"--it was under the "slower, better, more expensive" mantra, and it STILL was bungled.

For a good insight on exactly how and why things get screwed up, take a look at The Hubble Wars by Eric Chaisson, a scientist involved in the Hubble project from the beginning. Engineers marking time until retirement, clueless middle management, upper management unconcerned with anything but PR...

It goes like this: "You can have it faster, better, or cheaper... Pick one." Bada-bing!

I suppose it's possible to have faster and cheaper; all ya gotta do is cut features. But that never seemed to be an acceptable option to management, so in the end those three things always turned out to be mutually exclusive.

As engineers say: "Faster, better, cheaper -- pick any two."

"You better run faster, you cheap bastard"

Is what engineers should say to management.

You flip "Go" and somehow find yourself in the 13th century.

I've often thought people who think they are President of the United States because of faith-based electronic voting machines ought to be sent on a faith-based trip to Mars. Subject for a cartoon (any of the talented may have this idea, gratis): A rocket carrying George Bush and his Cabinet on a faith-based trajectory to Mars (missing and heading out of the Solar System). (You could do a whole Roadrunner-type cartoon series about the various ways they die and come back to life.)

:bounce:

Frank: so dave, um did you notice the switches here look, ummm funny?

Dave: Funny ha ha? or funny uh oh?

Frank: funny I'm not sure...

Dave: well, let's have a look

Dave waddles over in his containment suit and looks at the switches.

Frank: it's like they are switched in the wrong direction.

Dave: Well the both say on...

Frank: but isn't on usually up?

Dave: there is no up in space...

Frank: ooooo freaky...

the flaw. That's terrible letting "go fever" and (of course) executive pressure to keep to timetables and budgets.

shoddy work? Bastards. The Challenger blew up because of cheap o rings.
:grr:

NASA got grilled on that one.

oh. . . I guess they are . . .

Bemoaning a test that failed because some G-force sensors were installed backwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law