Posted on 06/14/2006 3:19:53 PM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet
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.
Lockheed said it was reviewing the final report and will implement changes to ensure future success.
"The Genesis mission serves to again remind us just how demanding space exploration always is and how exact our efforts must be," the company said in a statement.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
O ring specialists!
Dyslexics shouldn't install gravity switches.
If the gravity detection switches were wired backwards does that make them anti gravity switches?
I thought this had been known for some time.
Karl Rove must have made a phone call to his homeboys at Majestic 12. Muhaahaahaaaaaaa!
The report also said lack of oversight by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed the $264 million mission......
Total money blown was probably triple. That has to be a stripped number
$264 million to prove that gravity still exists.
-- "The Wrath of Khan"
Too bad clones of Orville and Wilbur aren't around to keep space exploration sensible.
When a bunch of rocket scientists screw up dimensional analysis (and get
crashes on Mars) and then can't put switches in the correct orientation...
something is wrong.
Whew! Good thing an honest mistake like this didn't happen during the Merc, Gemini or Apollo missions, someone coulda' been killed!.
Wouldn't have happened if they'd named it "Darwin".
When I was in the Army a buddy of mine was rewiring a 4-unit radio rack.
He was about halfway through when I thought of something. "Jay", I said, "What are you doing?" "Wiring this rack," he said. "What's it look like?"
"But, Jay, you're color blind," I said. "You're so bad you can't even tell black from white."
"It doesn't matter," he said, "it's your rack."
LOL!
Tax dollars at work cut the administrative budget to the point there are not enough manhours to oversee things efficiently...been a problem with NASA for a long, long time.
On another note: I have been told by people who work for NASA that the reason the Hubble had to have a mission to correct its vision is that it was basically a modification of spy satellite technology, and when they ground the mirrors for the telescope, they ground it the usual way, looking at the earth instead of looking outward...
Another case of not enough NASA hands on and depending on contractors to do the right thing.
Sometiems, one should either decide to do it right, and spend enough money, or not do it, instead of trying to do it on the cheap.
The obligatory "Bush's Fault" needs to be inserted...
Apparently, our president is anti-solar wind, caused global warming because of interfering with the sun and needs to be impeached, jailed and executed RIGHT FLIPPIN NOW!!!
[/s, of course!]
Then, just to prevent the hammersmiths from doing evil, I'd place a raised 'TOP' and 'FRONT --->' relief in the mold casting to ensure that there was a visual and tactile indicator to follow along with the installation specification document. Before shipping these parts to the installation team, I might even place a 'remove before installation' tag on each sensor with specification document references to the page number of the installation guide for these components.
If I had enough room on the actual hardware bay of the spacecraft, I'd get the art department to make a vinyl sticker (that had been certified not to cause any harm by any electrostatic retention or perhaps a failure to adhere in the freezing vacuum of space) that would be placed in a highly visible position showing a several-step installation cartoon CAD graphic showing the proper orientation of the part as installed using contrasting colors and international 'DO/DON'T' graphics.
By doing this, I think I would have satisfied the requirements for proper installation in such a manner as to leave anyone who funked it up subject to immediate decapitation by Guillotine. Finally, I would have installed the damned things myself.
But that's just me. I'm not an aerospace engineer.
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