JimO said:

>What this paper drives firmly home is the danger of depending
>mostly on mathematical simulations to try to describe the
>behavior of real-world substances. Since that problem has
>bedeviled engineers for most of the past century (or two),
>one would think TRW would have recognized the risk level of
>their gamble.

There's no way that I'd permit 65 ft long slender antennas to be on my spacecraft. The risk of thermo-elastic instability would be unacceptable. However if another guy was stupid enough to allow me to take the R&D risk on his spacecraft then I'd do it in a heartbeat. ESA was suckered by TRW. This was an example of taking candy from a baby.

Gary