scope:

Abstract:

A July 2007 workshop attended by the former Grumman Corporation's Apollo Lunar Module Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) Team and Constellation Program personnel traced the success of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) to reliability features that were locked into an early stage of LM design. The LM prime contractor (Grumman Corporation) and NASA shared responsibility for system reliability, provided for early Reliability Engineering involvement in evaluating design alternatives at the cross-Apollo system level, placed great emphasis on identification and elimination of critical single point failures, provided for extensive design redundancy, conducted parallel development of alternative technologies, tested critical hardware beyond qualification levels to the point of failure, and performed rigorous root cause analysis of failures. The Grumman retirees also recommended active management of design margins, providing the lunar lander with generous instrumentation and telemetry capabilities, and furnishing a strong Lander advocate during CEV design.