Mars Phoenix Lander's Ovens Were Destined To Fail

RobertB-DC writes "The Phoenix mission to Mars' frigid polar regions was going to be tricky from the start, with only a few weeks to perform as much science as possible. Success depended on everything working right. But one of the mission's most frustrating glitches — the stuck doors on the TEGA ovens — could have been prevented with basic quality control on Earth. Nature is reporting that bad brackets were replaced by the manufacturer ... with identically bad brackets. The Planetary Society blog sums it up succinctly: 'Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch.'"

Comments

So ?

[Fred_A]

Aren't they covered by warranty ? Get them to replace them.

Re:So ?

[TheLink]

I think the main problem is when you ask for on site support.

They'll look at you as if you came from another planet or something.

My Mother, NASA oven test engineer . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

From the blog:

Boynton and his team had noticed, on a test version of TEGA, that the brackets at the bottom of this cover were just a hair's width too big, and as a result obstructed the doors. They sent revised designs for the cover to the manufacturer, Honeybee Robotics of New York. New parts were delivered and installed. But Honeybee had made the new parts using the original flawed designs -- and nobody in Tucson checked them. "They should've caught it and we should've caught it, but neither of us did," says Boynton, ruefully.

. . . which is why NASA needs to hire my mother as oven test engineer. Not only would she have noticed "hair's width" difference, she would have taken every opportunity she had to complain to everyone she knows, and even total strangers about it.

On the other hand, once the door problem got fixed, she would find something else wrong with it, and the damn thing would probably never get off the ground.