Space Mission Failures

Catalog description

Space systems are designed to operate in the presence of multiple failures. And yet, occasionally, systems will still fail spectacularly. Reasons for failure include operator error, incorrect design, and manufacturing defects. The odds of these failures occurring can be significantly reduced through good systems engineering practice. But, in some cases, the very systems engineering practices themselves directly contribute to the failure. This course will introduce the fundamentals of good systems engineering practice. A series of case studies in failures (rockets, spacecraft, rovers, etc.) will be used to illustrate these principles and the new vulnerabilities they introduce.