Lorraine Fesq and Michel Ingham
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Fault management for today’s space missions is a complex problem, going
well beyond the typical safing requirements of simpler missions. Recent
missions have experienced technical issues late in the project
lifecycle, associated with the development and test of fault management
capabilities, resulting in both project schedule delays and cost
overruns. Symptoms seem to become exaggerated in the context of deep
space and planetary missions, most likely due to the need for increased
autonomy and the limited communications opportunities with Earth-bound
operators. These issues are expected to be further exacerbated as the
spacecraft envisioned for future missions become more capable and
complex. In recognition of the importance of addressing this problem,
the Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office hosted a Fault
Management Workshop on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate,
Planetary Science Division, to bring together experts in fault
management from across NASA, DoD, industry and academia. The scope of
the workshop was focused on deep space and planetary robotic missions,
with full recognition of the relevance of, and subsequent benefit to,
Earth-orbiting missions. The
following three topics, in particular, were targeted in the workshop
breakout sessions:
The key product of this three-day workshop is a NASA report documenting lessons learned from previous missions, recommended best practices, and future opportunities for investments in the fault management domain. An emerging realization from the workshop is the high cost and risk of proceeding with “business as usual” in the area of fault management engineering.