Citation
Abstract
This article describes the results of the reliability and availability analyses of the individual S- and X-band traveling-wave maser (TWM) assemblies and their operational configurations in the 70-meter antennas of NASA’s DSN. For the period 1990 through 1991, the TWM availability parameters for the Telemetry Data System are: mean time between failures (MTBF), 930 hr; mean time to restore service (MTTRS), 1.4 hr; and the average availability, 99.85 percent. In previously published articles, the performance analysis of the TWM assemblies was confined to the determination of the parameters specified above. However, as the mean down time (MDT) for the repair of TWMs increases, the levels of the TWM operational availabilities and MTTRS are adversely affected. In this article, a more comprehensive TWM availability analysis is presented to permit evaluation of both MTBF and MDT effects. Performance analysis of the TWM assemblies, based on their station monthly failure reports, indicates that the TWMs required MTBF and MDT levels of 3000 hr and 36 to 48 hr, respectively, have been achieved by the TWMs only at the Canberra Deep Space Station (DSS 43). The Markov Process technique is employed to develop suitable availability measures for the S- and X-band TWM configurations when each is operated in a two-assembly standby mode. The derived stochastic expressions allow for the evaluation of those configurations’ simultaneous availability for the Antenna Microwave Subsystem. The application of these expressions to demonstrate the impact of various levels of TWM maintainability (or MDT) on their configurations’ operational availabilities is presented for each of the 70-m antenna stations.
Details
- Volume
- 42-110
- Published
- August 15, 1992
- Pages
- 263–277
- File Size
- 739.5 KB