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To be fair 'space rated' does have meaning. There is 'off the shelf', 'automotive', 'aeronautic', 'unmanned space' and 'manned space' quality gear. If you thi
by alexasmyths 9y ago
To be fair 'space rated' does have meaning.
There is 'off the shelf', 'automotive', 'aeronautic', 'unmanned space' and 'manned space' quality gear.
If you think about it - when you're flying a plane, the 'tolerances' for everything just has to be higher - there's much more at risk.
In a complex system, there are a lot of single points of failure that can cause haywire.
Unsurprisingly, the tolerances for 'unmanned' vs. 'manned' space flight are quite different - and for good reason.
Perhaps the economics are not always quite right, it may make sense to make some small probe out of 'cheap gear' - but there is of course added risk, and usually, you 'only get one launch' attempt.
Finally - there's a reason a 'space grade' radio might cost $13K, and that's because they don't make very many :).
I interned on the Space Shuttle robot arm project - we made these aluminum 'handles' for the arm to grab onto. I mean - really, really basic stuff. $200K each. Engineering, overhead, testing, sales yada yada - we only ever made a few dozen.
- rangibaby 9y agoSee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning for something similar related to computers.
- wallace_f 9y ago>we made these aluminum 'handles' for the arm to grab onto. I mean - really, really basic stuff. $200K each. Engineering, overhead, testing, sales yada yada - we only ever made a few dozen. That sounds ridiculous. Did your coworkers have a strong opinion of that, or not care?
- alexasmyths 9y agoIt's not ridiculous at all, it just seems that way. It takes a lot of work and investment to design a 'space grade product'. When you only ever sell 50 of them - total, well the price will be high. Imagine if only 500 iPhones were ever sold - how much would they cost in order for Apple to make a profit? It's just the weird economics of small batch products that makes the price seem bonkers, there's no volume to spread the fixed costs over.
- ivix 9y agoI can easily believe that. Next time you're sat in a meeting with 5 other highly paid software developers, discussing a two line bugfix, think about how much that bugfix will have cost.
- coredog64 9y agoI would love to see an Outlook plugin that estimates meeting costs using salary band information for attendees. It would help keep rambling to a minimum.
- wallace_f 9y agoIPhone has a lot of R&D required for it to do what it does. How much R&D is reasonable for some "really simple handles?"
- alexasmyths 9y agoRequirements analysis, systems analysis and research (when you do things in space absolutely everything needs to be looked at), materials design and test (materials behave differently in space). Fixtures? How are they affixed to satelites? You can't just 'glue' them. The type of 'screws' are pretty important. This might require a lot of back and forth. Each step of the process involves internal review and review by the customer - i.e. Japanese space agency, and can take weeks. Testing requires a massive 'clean room' which is expensive to maintain. And you don't just make these things anywhere - tolerances have to be perfect. Not only is it tough engineering, it's a lot of bureaucracy. And then overhead: IT, support, software, flights, hotels yada yada yada. It adds up.
- kobeya 9y agoYou've said why it is expensive. Not why it needs to be expensive.
- heavenlyblue 9y ago