Skip to main content

Lessons Learned from the Clementine Mission (1997) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

3 Mission Implementation
Pages 12-20

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 12...
... The deficiency manifested itself in an excessively stressful mission-operations phase that was clearly exhausting to the team and may well have contributed to the ultimate demise of Clementine after the lunar portion of the mission had been completed but before insertion onto the asteroid flyby trajectory. Although the short schedule caused significant problems, the limited available time brought some benefits.
Read the entire page →
From page 13...
... also demand short development times. The Clementine experience indicates that such a schedule can be adequate, but only if the Discovery projects enjoy the other advantages of Clementine, such as unchanging objectives, disciplined management, a proven launch vehicle, and resources made available according to the original plan.
Read the entire page →
From page 14...
... Deep Space 1 stands out as an interesting variant in that it is run as a traditional NASA program but was defined and selected via a hybrid process involving integrated product development teams, that is, groups of experts drawn from industry, academia, and government and charged with the task of identifying and prioritizing technologies likely to increase the capabilities and lower the life-cycle costs of future science missions. aAbbreviations and acronyms are defined in the glossary.
Read the entire page →
From page 15...
... Costs for Mars Pathfinder include the $25 million for its rover contributed by NASA's former Of lice of Advanced Concepts and Technology. The figures for total costs include, in some cases, contingency funds.
Read the entire page →
From page 16...
... The Clementine technology itself can be of substantial benefit to future missions, both in reducing future costs and in improving science yield. Table 3.2 lists the heritage and possible future applications in the space sciences and elsewhere for some of the advanced technology components that Clementine helped to space-qualify for civilian flight.
Read the entire page →
From page 17...
... NASA' s New Millennium program could, potentially, continue the role of technological innovation begun by Clementine. To do so, however, the organization of New Millennium will have to differ considerably from various past NASA programs that were organized with the intended goal of developing valuable space technologies; occasional external oversight of such a program might be useful.
Read the entire page →
From page 19...
... 19 so 4= ~o .
Read the entire page →
From page 20...
... To observers of recent space science programs, a curious aspect of Clementine's failure to achieve one of its primary objectives (namely, autonomous tracking of a cold target) was that BMDO suffered little public embarrassment over this loss.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • clementine mission
  • mars pathfinder
  • science team
  • science missions
  • discovery missions

  • deep space
  • launch vehicle
  • nasa missions
  • space studies
  • clementine project

  • operations team
  • lunar exploration
  • project management
  • management approach
  • appropriately constituted

  • cost cap
  • planetary missions
  • explorer program
  • clementine operated
  • contingency funds

  • planetary mission
  • missions selected
  • technology components
  • approach adopted
  • operations phase

  • nasa programs
  • lunar prospector
  • millennium program
  • future applications
  • nasa science


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.