Reliability Analysis of a Communications Satellite Subsystem

Certain electronic components used in a communications satellite subsystem are prone to failure at known rates. The aim of this project to develop a means of computing the failure rate for a multiple component subsystem as a function of time. In the communication satellite under consideration, the critical (failure prone) components are two sets of vacuum tubes, referred to as TWTAs (Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers). This subsystem consists of 4 high power TWTAs with a mean-time-to-failure of 6.67×10 hours and 11 low power TWTAs with a mean-time-to-failure of 1.00 × 10 per hour. In addition the subsystem is equipped with 2 spare high power TWTAs with a mean-time-to-failure of 6.67 × 10 hours, and 2 spare low power TWTAs with a mean-time-to-failure of 1.00× 10 hours.