SWOT Mission Overview and Challenges

Cyrus Garamaya from NASA's Office of Inspector General discusses the SWOT mission, aimed at measuring Earth's water cycle with unprecedented accuracy. The mission, scheduled for a 2021 launch, faces technical and financial challenges, including issues with its primary instrument and international partner contributions. Recommendations have been made to address these challenges, and NASA has agreed to implement corrective actions.

What has been NASA's primary focus since 1978 in terms of satellite missions?

• Studying the Sun

• Observing distant galaxies

• Measuring Earth's water cycle

• Exploring Mars

What is the main goal of the SWOT mission?

• To explore the surface of Mars

• To measure the surface portion of Earth's water cycle

• To study the effects of solar flares

• To map the Milky Way galaxy

What is the estimated lifecycle cost of the SWOT mission to NASA?

• $500 million

• $755 million

• $400 million

• $1 billion

What technical issues have increased the SWOT project's development costs?

• Weather conditions

• Mechanical and electrical issues with the primary instrument

• Software bugs

• Lack of funding

What is the primary instrument of the SWOT mission?

• A spectrometer

• A telescope

• A wide-swath radar interferometer

• A solar panel array

What challenges have international partners faced in the SWOT mission?

• Budget cuts

• Lack of interest

• Unexpected design modifications and delayed components

• Political disagreements

What was missing from SWOT's JCL analysis?

• A timeline for the mission

• Detailed tasks for integrating and testing the payload module

• A list of international partners

• A budget overview

What tactical decision did project managers make regarding SWOT's development tasks?

• To shift complex tasks earlier than planned

• To outsource tasks to private companies

• To cancel some tasks

• To delay all tasks

What did NASA agree to do in response to the recommendations for the SWOT mission?

• Seek additional funding

• Postpone the mission indefinitely

• Implement planned corrective actions

• Ignore the recommendations

Where can the full report on the SWOT mission be accessed?

• In a scientific journal

• At a local library

• At oig.nasa.gov

• On the NASA website