Mars Climate Orbiter Failure
Disasters can be classified into two main categories; natural disasters and man-made disasters. Natural disasters are something that cannot be controlled even with human intervention. Man-made disasters however, are solely caused because of human actions. One type of man-made disasters is an engineering disaster. Engineering disaster is when something is built to perform a specific function but it ultimately fails to perform those functions. Examples can include buildings or bridges collapsing, machinery malfunctioning and so on.
This paper will focus on one particular engineering disaster, that being the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO). The Mars Climate Orbiter (Figure 1) was a space probe launched in 1998 with the mission of exploring …show more content…
Through research and analysis quite a few causes for this disaster were discovered. One particular root cause for this disaster was the use of incorrect units in one of the systems in the spacecraft. The units reported by the orbiter came in pounds-seconds instead of the required Newton-seconds which caused a difference of 4.45.
A few contributing causes also led to this disaster. The operations navigations team lacked proper spacecraft knowledge and was implemented shortly before the spacecraft was launched. The Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) was not implemented due to last minute navigational misjudgment and the lack of proper testing and training on implementing the TCM. The lack of a systems engineering team and lackluster, training, communications and staffing also added cause to this disaster.
Considering all the evidence gathered, it can safely be assumed that the team was not properly equipped or trained to handle a mission this complex. Even in the wake of this disaster however, the numerous successful NASA missions should not be forgotten. Even when projects fail, there is always something to learn from them. Engineers constantly innovate and their ambitions are set high and that is what NASA represents. This disaster served as another eye opener for NASA that pointed itself in the right direction following this
This paper will focus on one particular engineering disaster, that being the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO). The Mars Climate Orbiter (Figure 1) was a space probe launched in 1998 with the mission of exploring …show more content…
Through research and analysis quite a few causes for this disaster were discovered. One particular root cause for this disaster was the use of incorrect units in one of the systems in the spacecraft. The units reported by the orbiter came in pounds-seconds instead of the required Newton-seconds which caused a difference of 4.45.
A few contributing causes also led to this disaster. The operations navigations team lacked proper spacecraft knowledge and was implemented shortly before the spacecraft was launched. The Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) was not implemented due to last minute navigational misjudgment and the lack of proper testing and training on implementing the TCM. The lack of a systems engineering team and lackluster, training, communications and staffing also added cause to this disaster.
Considering all the evidence gathered, it can safely be assumed that the team was not properly equipped or trained to handle a mission this complex. Even in the wake of this disaster however, the numerous successful NASA missions should not be forgotten. Even when projects fail, there is always something to learn from them. Engineers constantly innovate and their ambitions are set high and that is what NASA represents. This disaster served as another eye opener for NASA that pointed itself in the right direction following this