Mars Climate Orbiter Team Magna Corp

Mars Climate Orbiter

• Team Magna Corp:

• Tim Toba

• Mohamed Sahil

• Nyema Johnson

• Abner Yemaneab

Agenda

• Team Magna Corp.

• Introduction – Mohamed Sahil

• Scope – Mohamed Sahil

• Time Management – Abner Yemaneab

• Cost Management – Nyema Johnson

• Project Management – Tim Toba

• Questions?

Introduction

• NASA started Mars Surveyor Program in 1993.

• Mars Climate Orbiter was launched on Dec. 11, 1998.

• Mars Polar Lander was launched on Jan. 3, 1999.

Scope Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter

Scope

• Develop and launch two spacecrafts to Mars during the 1998 Mars transfer opportunity.

• Development cost was estimated at $183.9 Million.

• Collect and return to Earth, science data resulting from the water and remote investigations of the Martian environment by the Lander.

Scope

• Orbiter should act as a

• relay station for five years.

• Assist in data transmission

• to and from the Mars Polar

• Lander.

• Provide detailed information about the atmospheric temperature, dust, water vapor, and clouds on Mars.

• Provide valuable information about the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Mars.

Scope

Scope

• A second spacecraft Mars

• Polar Lander will be

• launched.

• Perform daily recording of the

• sound and images of Mars for one Martian year (687 days).

• The Purpose of the mission is to gather atmospheric data of each of the seasons on Mars.

• The mission's projected end date is December 1, 2004.

Scope

Time Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter

• Feb 7, 1994: Program Started.

• May 1, 1995: Project Manager Named.

• JPL names John B. McNamee manager of the newly-formed Mars Surveyor '98 Project.

• May 8, 1995: Instrument Proposals Solicited.

• Oct 20, 1995: Instruments Selected.

• Dec 1, 1995: Project Scientist Named.

• Richard Zurek

• Jan 4, 1997: Orbiter Design Reviewed.

• Aug 1, 1997 - Sep 30, 1998: Orbiter Assembled and Tested.

• Feb 1, 1998: Lander and Orbiter Renamed.

• Dec 11, 1998: Orbiter Launched.

Dec 11, 1998: Lander Leaves Earth.

• Dec 11, 1998: Lander Leaves Earth.

• Dec 11, 1998 - Sept 11, 1999: Mars Orbiter Interplanetary Cruise.

• Feb 3, 1999: New Management.

• Richard A. Cook is the MSOP project manager.

• September 1999, the spacecraft was to fire its main engine to achieve an elliptical orbit around Mars.

• Sept. 23, 1999: The Mars Climate Orbiter mission was lost when it entered the Martian atmosphere on a lower than expected trajectory.

Faster, Better, Cheaper

• Costs were reduced and program scope — including both content and the infusion of new technology — increased at the same time.

• The the focus on cost and schedule reduction increased risk beyond acceptable levels on some NASA projects.

Mission Success First

• Schedule Recommendations:

• Number One Priority Should be Mission Success over Cost and Schedule.

• “bottoms up” budget and schedule should be developed.

• The team should take ownership of the schedule

• There should be adequate schedule slack available to solve problems.

• Check if mission success has been compromised as a result of schedule?

Cost Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter

Cost

• A total of $327.6 million was allocated for the Mars ’98 Project (which included the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander)

• $193.1 million for spacecraft development,
• $91.7 million for launch, and
• $42.8 million for mission operations

• $80M of the $193.1M went toward the building of the MCO spacecraft

• $5M of the $42.8M used to operations the MCO

Cost

Project Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter

Project Management

• JPL/Mr. John McNamee

• Project Manager for MCO and MPL

• HQ/SD/Mr. Steven Brody

• MCO Program Executive

• NASA Headquarters

• MSFC/DA01/Mr. Drew Smith

• Special Assistant to Center Director

• George C. Marshall Space Flight Center

• HQ/SR/Dr. Charles Holmes

• Program Executive for Science Operations

• NASA Headquarters

• HQ/QE/Mr. Michael Card

• Program Manager

• NASA Headquarters

Project Management

• Existing Processes and Requirements

• NASA has significant infrastructure of processes and requirements in place to enable robust program and project management, beginning with the capstone document:

• NASA Procedures and Guidelines 7120.5.

• Many of these clearly have a direct bearing on mission success.

Project Management

• So What Went Wrong?

• Heart of Mission’s Navigation Mishap

• Due to a conversion error in which commands to the spacecraft were sent in English units rather than metric units

• Unofficially, the problem had been detected but due to politics between the development team and JPL, a fix was never deployed

Project Management

• The official report cited the following “contributing factors” to the loss of the spacecraft

• undetected errors in ground-based models of the spacecraft the
• operational navigational team was not fully informed on the details of the way that Mars Climate Orbiter was pointed in space
• a final, optional engine firing to raise the spacecraft’s path
• relative to Mars before its arrival was considered but not performed

Project Management

• Summary

• One Technical Problem
• failed conversion of unit
• Many Process and Social Problems
• No review (e.g. verification), insufficient training, informal processes in place, formal processes ignored
• Led to a destroyed spacecraft

Questions ?

References

• http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/links.html

• http://mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/mission_overview.html

• http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/marsclim.html

• http://mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/orbiter/