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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!amd!dual!ames!al
From: al@ames.UUCP (Al Globus)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Chicago Tribune Article
Message-ID: <406@ames.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Jul-84 14:15:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.406
Posted: Fri Jul 13 14:15:15 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Jul-84 10:15:25 EDT
References: <501@denelcor.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 35


No, the computer will not go into the scrap heap (yet, anyway). Much more
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
important (at least in the NASA way of doing things) is to discover exactly
WHY the computer failed. It will most probably be sent back to the
manufacturer to be tested to death in order to find out whether the fault
was a fluke (and why) or whether it is a design error....

This is one of the major reasons why the exploration of space has been so
expensive. In a commercial operation, that computer would be tested, and if
it failed, it would be scrapped and replaced. Another $1.2 million burned.
NASA will more than likely expend far more than the $1.2 million tracing
the error. The largest part of that cost per computer, in the first place,
is the paperwork that the manufacturer has to generate on each piece of
hardware in order that a fault can be traced to the exact step where it
was introduced. Yes, this probably kept a few astronauts from being killed
in space; but it has made space exploration a very expensive proposition,
indulged in only by governments.
-- 
		Lyle McElhaney
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As a recent spate of in flight failures
has shown, extreme caution is needed in space to make things work.  The 
margins for error are tiny and the consequences of mistakes in the hundred
million dollar range or more.  Insurance money for spacecraft is drying up
and getting very expensive due to failures by PAM-D, Ariane and other upper
stages.  NASA is extremely careful because that is what it takes to make
spacecraft work.  Even the vast documentation requirements failed to note
a critical pin on Solar-Max that almost caused the mission to fail.  The
paper work could be replaced by computer work at lower cost and greater
reliability, but leaving out the tests and documentation is asking for
megabucks down the tubes.