Using analog telemetry to measure spacecraft equipment usable life upgrading factory ATP

When probability reliability analysis engineering was adopted in 1960 by the U.S. government, it became required use by spacecraft and launch vehicle suppliers to quantify spacecraft and launch vehicle reliability in probabilistic terms. Due to its use, spacecraft and launch vehicle suppliers stopped looking for the cause of premature equipment failures that was plaguing the industry. The government procurement contracts did not financially penalize space vehicle suppliers when their equipment failed prematurely, but did financially penalize them for a late delivery, increasing the motivation for space vehicle suppliers to overlook and misdiagnose equipment behavior in the test data that slowed down testing and increased risk of earning a financial penalty for a late delivery. The risk of a premature failure is so high that NASA GSFC pays for NOAA´s long-life weather satellites after they get to space and function properly for at least one year. Military satellites fail prematurely so often that in 2010, the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center fined an Air Force space vehicle supplier $15M for the premature failure of the apogee engine of the AEHF-1 satellite. The private space companies that own satellites and earn income selling the satellite services anticipate the premature failure of either their launch vehicle or satellite and purchase space insurance policies that cost up to $60M to pay for all the financial losses that occur when their satellites and launch vehicles fail prematurely. To minimize the public from learning about the frequency that space vehicle equipment purchased by NASA and the military, fails prematurely, the information is proprietary to the company that produced it. The government agency´s that purchase space vehicle equipment that fails prematurely do not want it to be known publically either and so the financial losses due to the premature failure of NASA and military satellites to the taxpayer is difficult to ascertain but is- identified by some sources as ranging from $4B to $10B per year. To stop the premature failure of space vehicle equipment, spacecraft equipment usable life can be measured using the same equipment telemetry data generated and used to measure and confirm equipment performance. Predictive algorithms use equipment analog telemetry to identify non-repeatable transient behavior in equipment telemetry related to equipment end-of-life. This paper will explain the technology, tools necessary to identify the space vehicle equipment that will fail prematurely from parts will accelerated aging in the space and ground segment environment with the presence of noise from a variety of sources.