Software Crowd in Huntsville Gets Religion

Better, Faster Spacecraft Designs: New Software System Offers Promise of NASA-wide Collaboration, NASA MSFC

“The suite of design tools is called PARSEC, short for the Preliminary Analysis of Revolutionary Space Exploration Concepts. It enables engineers to share design ideas, access the same highly technical information and see the latest test results – all from their desktop computers.”

NASA Report: Overview of the DART Mishap Investigation Results – For Public Release, NASA MSFC

“Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) – The MIB determined that analyses to identify possible hardware/software faults failed to consider a sufficient set of conditions that could lead to the mishap. For example, the analyses focused on the effects of a complete loss of functionality of the navigation system’s components, but did not address the impact of a degraded functionality of those same components.”

Editor’s note: It sure looks like the software screw-ups that led to MSFC-managed DART failure have caused the MSFC folks to get religion as far as software design goes. However, using the words “Better, Faster Spacecraft” as the title of their press release is a little scary (Mars Climate Orbiter anyone?). At least they did not use “cheaper”. And why isn’t IV&V mentioned? You’d think they’d be part of this (i.e. an outside evaluator). Oh wait, “OneNASA” was one of those silly O’Keefe ideas.