Cost Impacts of Upgrading Electronic Parts for Use in NASA Space Flight Systems

The work presented here provides a cost model to help mission designers and program managers both plan for and manage Electronic, Electrical and Electromechanical (EEE) parts program costs. The data shown below illuminates the “cost of ownership” for EEE parts used in space flight programs and highlights where costs saving strategies are best targeted. The use of post-procurement processing to increase part reliability assurance, or “upgrading”, is driven by the need for state-of-the-art parts with short lead times. This limited and selective use of upgrading will not greatly increase overall project costs. When upgrading is used broadly across the program however, the costs increase dramatically. Background is provided to show how upgrading costs impact projects within NASA’s multi-level parts assurance management system.