Mars Pathfinder “common sense” mission assurance

The Mars Pathfinder Mission Assurance program was the first “tailored” approach at JPL. It featured flexibility, common sense, concurrent engineering, and lower cost. Documentation was cut significantly, MA team members were empowered, a full environmental test program was implemented, selective redundancy was employed, QA was based on processes (not historical points), and the electronic parts program was a mixture of Cassini common buys and Military grades. The MA cost was less than one-third of tradition and the number of problem/failure reports was less than one-quarter normal (at one-third the normal closure cost each). There were no significant deviations from the plan created over three years before launch