Mars Climate Orbiter

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Mars Climate Orbiter

• Team Magna Corp
• Tim Toba
• Mohamed Sahil
• Nyema Johnson
• Abner Yemaneab

University of Minnesota
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Agenda

• Team Magna Corp.
• Introduction Mohamed Sahil
• Scope Mohamed Sahil
• Time Management Abner Yemaneab
• Cost Management Nyema Johnson
• Project Management Tim Toba
• Questions?

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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.

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Scope Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter
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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.

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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.

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Scope
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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.

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Scope
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Time Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter
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02/07/94
12/11/98
12/01/2004
09/23/99
Pre-Launch
Launch Cruise
Orbiting

• 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.

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02/07/94
12/11/98
12/01/2004
09/23/99
Orbiting
Pre-Launch
Launch Cruise

• 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.

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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.

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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?

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Cost Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter
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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

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Cost

• 35.5M went toward the launching of the MCO
• Mission cost of the MCO totaled 120.5M
• (36.8 of the total budget allotted to both
  missions)
• The Independent Assessment Team charge with
  investigating the failure of the spacecrafts
  concluded that the 98 Mars Project was at least
  30 under-funded.

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Project Management of the Mars Climate Orbiter
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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

jmcnamee_at_mailhost4.jpl.nasa.gov
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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.

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Project Management

• So What Went Wrong?
• Heart of Missions 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

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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
  spacecrafts path
• relative to Mars before its arrival was
  considered but not performed

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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

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Questions ?
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References

• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/links.html
• http//mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/mission_overview.h
  tml
• http//www.xs4all.nl/carlkop/marsclim.html
• http//mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/orbiter/