The discussion revolves around the planning and execution of space probes, focusing on fail-proof design, trajectory calculations, and the implications of budgetary decisions on future missions. It includes theoretical and practical considerations related to engineering and space exploration.
Participants express differing views on the feasibility of fail-proof designs and the implications of budgetary constraints on space exploration. There is no consensus on these issues, and multiple competing perspectives remain present in the discussion.
Participants discuss the limitations of current engineering practices and the challenges posed by budgetary constraints, but do not resolve the complexities involved in designing space probes or the trajectory calculation process.
Fail-proof is not possible. Fail-tolerance is the goal. Engineers design for robustness, and try to include enough redundancy in critical systems to allow work-arounds in the event of failure. It is too costly to provide back-ups for every system on a probe, and some systems are too heavy and bulky to have back-ups, so these systems must be robust. Data pathways, chipsets, etc. are generally lighter and smaller and can be backed up. The design of any probe has to revolve around costs, payload weight, fuel requirements, etc, etc. If you design in too much redundancy, the weight of the probe increases, the amount fuel required to launch it increases, the amount fuel required to maneuver the probe increases. All these increase project costs and reduce the number of "nice to have" and "optional" sensors, experiments, etc that your friends and associates want to tack onto the probe.rhia said:
rhia said: