IF YOU were to hazard a guess at the subject of NASA鈥檚 latest software development project, you might envisage a program for finding signs of life on Mars. Or software that searches Hubble images for extrasolar planets. But no. The agency鈥檚 latest software project will aid one of its more unfortunate preoccupations: investigating failed missions.
NASA鈥檚 recent history, with its flirtation with 鈥渇aster, better, cheaper鈥� missions, has been marred by calamities such as the disappearing Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter probes, and Contour, which disintegrated in space. But investigating these events is a time-consuming and hit-and-miss affair, says NASA, so it鈥檚 developing software that puts what it calls 鈥渕ishap analysis鈥� on a systematic footing.
After reviewing analyses of past failures, NASA decided its experts took 鈥渧ery disparate approaches鈥� to investigations, reported on different aspects, and differed widely in how far back they traced causal factors. And, says Tina Panontin, chief engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, very few of the panels included an expert in failure analysis.
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Ames engineers had already developed a program called ScienceOrganizer to coordinate the work of scientists scattered over several of NASA鈥檚 sites. Accident investigators face similar problems: they need to share data and analyse results. Typically, members of review teams work at different sites and need quick-and-easy access to a large body of data. NASA decided the simplest course would be to create a mishap-specific version called InvestigationOrganizer.
Investigators share data through a browser-like screen that lets them make links between information such as project plans, reports, images and accident telemetry data. Visual fault trees are used to help trace the consequences of different events.
NASA started developing the software in March, and gave an early version a preliminary test in the summer after a pyrotechnics accident at an air show blew out some NASA windows. 鈥淚t worked very well,鈥� Panontin says.
The program is now being used to investigate the failure of Contour, the Comet Nucleus Tour spacecraft that broke up after launch in August.