MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT
Mars Climate Orbiter Failure Board Releases Report, Numerous NASA Actions Underway In
Response
UNIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE
MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT
Introduction
In this paper we focus on a case study of NASA, 1999 when it lost the Mars Climate Orbiter, a
338 kg robotic space probe (with a cost of $327.6 million dollars) due to a failed translation of
British units into metric units in the mission software. This mistake triggered an unintentional
de-orbit of the probe and its subsequent disintegration in Mars’ upper atmosphere. There are
clear indications that some critical tests on the software were not done.
Quality approaches, methods and tools would propose to mitigate each of the 8 contributing
factors identified in the release
Quality assurance strategies seek to prevent, detect, and correct problems in the quality of
services provided to individuals and populations. Quality improvement strategies attempt to
improve quality through continuous study and modification of the services being provided.
Although these approaches tend to have different quantitative techniques and philosophical
perspectives, they are inextricably linked (IOM, 1990). Put another way, an effective quality
assurance program is not an end in itself; rather, it is a means of maintaining and improving care
(O'Leary, 1988).
From the listed findings by the board, we find errors which went undetected, lack of
proper communication channels, lack of quality meetings, lack of independent experts to verify
the process, lack of team work, lack of experienced team, and lack of trained team to handle this
big mission and to address all these challenges we would have used the following tools and
methods to mitigate the contributing failure factors.
Check lists
Check lists are basic tools to evaluate if all what was supposed to be done has been done,
it gives room of ticking all the planned tasks and correct where possible or do the missing tasks.
So in terms of software, this could be captured earlier. In every project there is a need to consider
MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT
documentation and training of the project teams and also meetings, if these were listed properly
on the checklists then these gaps could be closed too.
Quality Meetings
These are meetings meant for management and engineers to evaluate the project or
operations quality and once people meet regularly to review on all impeding issues is when faults
or strength can be realised. If these are not conducted, there is high chance of having
communication breakdowns between the Teams and this leads to failures in the organisations
and systems. NASA climate Team was meeting and updating each other on critical positioning
points
DRIVE
DRIVE is an approach to problem solving and analysis that can be used as part of process
improvement.
Define the scope of the problem the criteria by which success will be measured and agree the
deliverables and success factors
Review the current situation, understand the background, identify and collect information,
including performance, identify problem areas, improvements and “quick wins”
Identify improvements or solutions to the problem, required changes to enable and sustain the
improvements
Verify check that the improvements will bring about benefits that meet the defined success
criteria, prioritise and pilot the improvements
Execute plan the implementation of the solutions and improvements, agree and implement them,
plan a review, gather feedback and review.
Considerations would take in order to implement proposals within the organization
By clearly defining the quality management strategy of my choice to the project Team
and communicating it to them and also training them on how to use it is the right strategy to get
MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT
it implemented within the organisation. The Team should be part of the big idea to have the
project succeed with high quality and reduce all errors at cost since the project is big although
people can always make mistakes but calculating all the risks and putting up measures how to
mitigate them is the right way.
Conclusion
It is confusing to deploy so many quality control tools as each tools as has its own
discipline and rules so in this case would use six sigma as it covers a wide range of methods to
reduce defects.
Quality plays an important role in the success and failure of an organization. Neglecting
an important aspect like quality, will not let you survive in the long run. Six Sigma ensures
superior quality of products by removing the defects in the processes and systems. Six sigma is a
process which helps in improving the overall processes and systems by identifying and
eventually removing the hurdles which might stop the organization to reach the levels of
perfection. According to sigma, any sort of challenge which comes across in an organization’s
processes is considered to be a defect and needs to be eliminated.
Reference:
Isbell,D.&Savage,D. (1999). MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES
REPORT, NUMEROUS NASA ACTIONS UNDERWAY IN RESPONSE [Blog post].
Retrieved from https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco991110.html
Juneja,P. (2018). Quality Management Tools. Retrieved from
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/quality-management-tools.htm
National Academy of Sciences. (1996). Current Quality Assurance and Improvement Strategies.
Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231104/