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Space Forum / Shuttle / January 2006Long missions question
Something I have always wondered about long missions such as New Horizons. I am sure the scientists involved work extremely hard to get the missions under way. How do they motivate themselves when they must know there is a real possibility they might not be around (eg moved to another job, retired or even dead) when the results start coming in? Katipo Well, from an engineering point of view, it's just self-motivation to achieving a goal -- they are exciting missions and the goals are simply cool enough to provide all the incentive one needs. Take Galileo, for example, which arrived at Jupiter long after it was designed and built. Having the opportunity to roam around the solar system exploring by the machines one designs is simply exciting. >Something I have always wondered about long missions such as New Horizons. > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Katipo >  Signaturerk, Just an OldEngineer "The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people." -- Kelly Johnson in Skunk Works I take your point, and Ten's. But what about the things that can go wrong after launch that the designers can't control? Obviously things like the possibility your probe might be destroyed by, say, a meteor are risks you have to take? However, as cool as the work is, it can't be easy to put your heart and soul into a project when, for example, you know there are no gaurantees that funding will be available to process (or even collect) data sent back when (and if) the probe reaches its destination. I tend to look more at the longer term issues than many people (in my experience) do. If I was a rocket scientist and was asked to bust my gut working say 60 to 80 hours a week to get a probe ready by a particular deadline, I'd like a little certainty that when it arrives at its destination the information it gathers will be collected and analysed. If sufficient certainty is not there I'd rather not build the probe until I had developed the technology to get it to its destination while I was still around to ensure my time was not wasted.. Katipo > Well, from an engineering point of view, it's just self-motivation to > achieving a goal -- they are exciting missions and the goals are simply [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >> >>Katipo Well, I can include a few personal observations and opinions below. Consider this from the perspective of an engineer at JPL, where I was employed at the time. I no longer work there. >I take your point, and Ten's. > >But what about the things that can go wrong after launch that the designers >can't control? >Obviously things like the possibility your probe might be destroyed by, say, >a meteor are risks you have to take? Of course, there are no sure things. Getting hit by an asteroid. Or as Henry has pointed out, there were thruster issues. Or any one of a bajillion things can go wrong. But that doesn't mean one never leaves the harbor. For spacecraft systems the design rule was no single point failures. That gives one some margin for a random failure but not in general a systemic or common mode failure. I don't believe the instruments had full redundancy. Now, is dual redundant with cross strapping good enough? It depends is the only answer you can come up with, how much you are willing to pay, how you trade off spacecraft vs. science, and how much risk is acceptable. Of course, that is a high level policy decision. For ths space shuttle (and this is sci.space.shuttle) they have a higher level of fault tolerance. How much is enough? >However, as cool as the work is, it can't be easy to put your heart and soul >into a project when, for example, you know there are no gaurantees that >funding will be available to process (or even collect) data sent back when >(and if) the probe reaches its destination. I never regarded that as a factor. Since there are no guarantees for any of these missions it would not make sense to require a guarantee of some sort. For example, consider just the risk in the launch vehicle. >I tend to look more at the longer term issues than many people (in my >experience) do. If I was a rocket scientist and was asked to bust my gut [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >developed the technology to get it to its destination while I was still >around to ensure my time was not wasted.. Again, no guarantees, particularly in exploration misssions such as this. I asked above how much is enough. Do you put two computers on? Or three? Or four? Or five? It simply doesn't matter, you will never reduce the risk to the point of having a guarantee. Consider the control electronics for a digital fly-by-wire aircraft such as some Airbus models or the Boeing 777. There are no guarantees and they design to a failure rate that is deemed "acceptable risk" for the flying public. >Katipo > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >>>Katipo > Signaturerk, Just an OldEngineer "The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people." -- Kelly Johnson in Skunk Works > Something I have always wondered about long missions such as New Horizons. > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Katipo Science is all about standing on the shoulders of those who came before you. Every scientist understands this. You do your part with the hopes that those in later generations can benefit from your work, knowing that none of them will ever know your name. > Something I have always wondered about long missions such as New Horizons. > > I am sure the scientists involved work extremely hard to get the missions > under way. How do they motivate themselves when they must know there is a > real possibility they might not be around (eg moved to another job, > retired or even dead) when the results start coming in? I'd like to think of it as job security |
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