Psyche engineers discover and fix a major thruster problem only two weeks before launch
In a stroke of luck, the engineering team for the asteroid probe Psyche discovered an attitude thruster problem only two weeks before launch that could have destroyed the mission, and were able to fix it quickly.
The issue was discovered during pre-flight tests that showed the settings used to operate the thrusters were incorrect. At the planned 80 percent power level, analysis indicated higher-than-expected temperatures could cause damage.
As it turned out, the fix did not require any hardware or software changes. Just an updated table of parameters used by the probe’s flight computer, instructing it to fire the thrusters at what amounts to a lower power level. Maneuvers will take longer to complete, but that will not affect the mission.
Nonetheless, this problem should not have been discovered so late, and suggests that the management issues from other software problems that forced a year delay in the launch last year have not been completely solved. If I was the project scientist for this mission, I would be very uncomfortable about its future.
Hopefully, no more serious problems will occur, and after its Falcon Heavy launch on October 12 it will fly past Mars to aim for an August 2029 arrival at the metal asteroid Psyche.
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In a stroke of luck, the engineering team for the asteroid probe Psyche discovered an attitude thruster problem only two weeks before launch that could have destroyed the mission, and were able to fix it quickly.
The issue was discovered during pre-flight tests that showed the settings used to operate the thrusters were incorrect. At the planned 80 percent power level, analysis indicated higher-than-expected temperatures could cause damage.
As it turned out, the fix did not require any hardware or software changes. Just an updated table of parameters used by the probe’s flight computer, instructing it to fire the thrusters at what amounts to a lower power level. Maneuvers will take longer to complete, but that will not affect the mission.
Nonetheless, this problem should not have been discovered so late, and suggests that the management issues from other software problems that forced a year delay in the launch last year have not been completely solved. If I was the project scientist for this mission, I would be very uncomfortable about its future.
Hopefully, no more serious problems will occur, and after its Falcon Heavy launch on October 12 it will fly past Mars to aim for an August 2029 arrival at the metal asteroid Psyche.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
So the team was given inaccurate thruster data that worked out such that an 80% duty cycle would stay within the given temperature constraints, and wrote the flight management software accordingly. Then during final review, someone discovered that the data was incorrect, an 80% duty cycle would generate more heat than they were capable of dealing with, and they changed the software to limit them to a 30% duty cycle instead.
I haven’t found an article that gives any details on how the discrepancy in the documentation happened and how it was discovered, but it seems to me that the current team is doing what it’s supposed to, and the actual problem was years ago when they were provided bad data and didn’t do whatever was just done to verify it.
There has been a steady erosion of engineering tribal knowledge all throughout the industry, except in pockets. Formerly rock solid engineering houses like Boeing, and now even the high pinnacle of JPL are now making bad mistakes that rarely snuck through to flight vehicles in the past. There simply hasn’t been consistent hiring and passing of that knowledge through the decades, and the best and brightest aren’t always choosing aerospace careers like was done post-Sputnik. Combined with replacement of engineers in upper management with finance, increasingly woke, types is a big factor in the degradation.
I see it every day in my neck of the woods.