Re:James Webb is fully deployed
by WalterBright on Saturday January 08, 2022 @05:49PM
(#29857366)
So build a copy out of the spares! If they're there, they're already paid for.
Not every part meets the criteria to be a "critical" spare. You don't have a complete set of spares for every component.
Re:James Webb is fully deployed
by WalterBright on Saturday January 08, 2022 @08:39PM
(#29858902)
Are you suggesting that spares are only produced for the cheap parts?
No. Only for the parts deemed critical.
An example may be a part with a long lead time and no redundancy. If it is found defective during testing, they need a replacement right away and don’t want the schedule to slip while it gets fabricated
In space applications costs can be exaggerated compared to actual production environments because the risks aren’t mitigated by something like the FAA, meaning they are often mitigated by some downstream process. Besides, a lot of the the designs already include critical spares, so there’s more than a single run, even in a one-off design