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Why don't we just build several identical copies of things like this during development? Surely most of the cost is in the engineering, the added cost of fabric
by creato 5y ago
Why don't we just build several identical copies of things like this during development? Surely most of the cost is in the engineering, the added cost of fabricating a few of everything must not be that high. Then if it does fail for some reason, we can just try again.
- rich_sasha 5y agoThis is in fact done (effectively). All components have a "flight spare", which is just a second copy. It can be swapped should any component fail before take-off. It doesn't get assembled into the whole thing though. Other uses include debugging already-launched kit with the easily accessible copy, reusing in other projects, and ultimately, museum artifacts. It is also worth saying that producing anything, from mirrors and cameras, to boring screws and nuts, that end up going into space, is no small endeavour. It's not the case that you can just mill something out of aluminium, then do it N more times. Here's a nice video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlASewYMDsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlASewYMDsg (in fact in the specific context of JWST)