Satellites

Craft sent into space with intention of orbiting the Earth.

• Need for high Reliability with redundancy

• Ability to survive adverse environmental conditions (high shocks during launch, wide temperature variations, zero gravity, vacuum conditions, ...)

• Minimising Weight

• Matching design characteristics to purpose

• Small and subtle errors lead to failure to achieve purpose.
• Failure to get into orbit.
• Satellite falling onto populated area.
• Collision with other objects, eg. space 'junk'.

Key Systems Engineering or Project Management Techniques

• FMECA
• Material Technologies
• (Thorough) Testing Strategy
• Mission analysis
• Disposal Management

Case Studies

• Shortcomings in Hubble Telescope led to costly manned mission to fix.
• Loss of Lewis Satellite due to failure of a control mode.
• Loss of WIRE Satellite due to inadequate attention to transients
• Early Delta 3 launch vehicle failures due to underestimating task of upgrading from earlier design