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> March 31, 2000:
Hour One: Faster, Cheaper...Not Better?
| When NASA began its New Millennium program in the early 1990's, they trumpeted a new slogan: "Faster, Better, Cheaper." The days of the old behemoth programs at NASA were on the wane, and lean, streamlined smaller missions were to be the wave of the future. In the business and engineering world, however, there's a related aphorism sometimes called Wexelblatt's Scheduling Algorithm: "Choose any two: Fast, Cheap, Good." Did NASA try to bend the rules past their breaking point? | 
Night shuttle landing.
NASA image. | Members of an independent panel announced this week that they believe that the loss of the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft was due to landing engines shutting down too early after sensors misinterpreted landing gear deployment as an actual touchdown. The Polar Lander's sister craft, the Mars Climate Orbiter, was lost after an embarrassing mix-up involving English and metric units. And just last week, HESSI, a spacecraft designed to observe solar flares, "sustained substantial damage during vibration testing," according to a NASA release--in other words, engineers shook the craft too hard and it broke. While there have been a number of successful missions launched in recent years, including the Galileo orbiter, the recent string of accidents and failures has many people questioning the space agency's tactics.
A NASA report on the "Faster, Better, Cheaper" approach says that while the early days of the initiative worked well, "second-generation" programs were perhaps suffering. | "The challenge bar was raised too high for some of the second-generation Missions. The cost cap challenges were made too great, along with a mix of unstable funding and escalating requirements. We need to slow down some, not rush too quickly into important Programs and Projects, plan and implement them more carefully, and move away from fixations on cost and near term gain," said Tony Spear, author of the "Faster, Better, Cheaper" report. | You Tell Us
[an error occurred while processing this directive]This SciFri poll is by no means scientific! | On this hour of Science Friday, we'll be talking about the current difficulties with some NASA programs, from the recent Mars exploration accidents to assessments of the shuttle's ability to meet launch schedules for the International Space Station. Call in with your comments, questions, and concerns - our number is 1-800-989-8255.
Guests:
Henry McDonald
Director
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, CA
Joseph Rothenberg
Associate Administrator, Office of Space Flight
NASA
Washington, DC
Edward Stone
Director
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
James Schefter
Contributing Editor
Popular Science
Author, "The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon"
Park City, Utah
Thomas Young
Chairman, Mars Program Independent Assesment Team
Former Executive Vice President, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
The Space Shuttle Independent Assessment Team Report
NASA
JPL: Mars Program Reports
NASA WATCH: Faster - Better - Cheaper
This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist |
