Mars Global Surveyor mission assurance: key approaches for faster, better, cheaper missions

Future space missions are required to deliver significant results with new technology and substantially reduced development cost and schedule. Among the first of the recent Faster, Better, Cheaper (FBC) missions for Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASAs) Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was launched to Mars on November 7, 1996 after spending $148M and 27 months in development. A phoenix risen from the ashes of Mars Observer (MO), MGS combined significant heritage with key enabling new technologies to meet its ambitious programmatic and technical goals. This development was characterized by significant teaming between JPL and its development partners. The MGS mission assurance (MA) program was tailored from its MO baseline to capitalize on previous heritage, use development partners' assurance approaches, balance technical risk and implement new assurance approaches consistent with the significant development constraints. The key approaches included teaming, heritage, personnel consistency, concurrency, collocation, task value analysis, communication, peer review, rapid closure, appropriate attention to detail and education. This paper will outline the MGS mission assurance requirements and describe the key mission assurance approaches.