Risk & Cost Study Before this work began, a study was conducted revealing the risks and costs associated with the current  pyrotechnic valves. Elimination of these risks and costs was the primary goal of this effort and the reason for the effort.  MSFC and GSFC each provided input to this study. The team’s data and experience showed that there  were three areas of concern: 1) Spacecraft System Development Costs driven by component reliability, 2) Component Development and Qualification Cost associated to the single use nature of the components, and 3) Spacecraft Operational Costs driven by the operational proximity of the personnel and payload to pyrotechnic devices. Spacecraft Development Costs: Given that the pyrotechnic valves offer no redundancy of operation,  should the main charge fail, the designers of the systems require multiple pressurant and propellant fluid system legs with multiple valves in series and/or parallel to ensure reliability of the spacecraft. This is  based on operational history where failures of these valves result in the loss of the spacecraft or loss of the mission. Many examples were found where incorrect wiring, loose wiring, or failed igniters resulted in a spacecraft valve not opening/closing and the mission was lost. So, designers now routinely install  parallel (and often series in addition) fluid legs assuring opening (or closing) actions. Design of these  systems with multiple parallel (and/or series) legs drives the vehicle costs. If the valves can be assured to have true redundancy and high reliability, multiple paths could be eliminated and the development cost of the spacecraft reduced. A goal for these new valves was to allow end-to-end verification of the electrical  system, and to have capability for true redundancy in the actuation system.  Component Development Costs: This area has at least two costs associated with the total. The first is an igniter system. The second is the method required to qualify the valves/systems for spaceflight. The first  requires development and qualification of the igniter subsystems and controls to ensure the system meets all performance requirements. Generally, pyrotechnic valves use a chain of explosive events consisting of  multiple pyrotechnics, each more stable and more energetic than the one before. As an example, an  electrical impulse is used to set off a small squib in the igniter, which sets off a high explosive, which  ignites a low explosive. These low explosives are used to generate the high pressure gases needed to open the valve. Figure 1 shows a typical pyrovalve cross-section and the location of each of these explosive elements. Each of the elements, the interconnections, and the controllers, which provide the  initiation, all have to be designed, tested, qualified, and installed on the spacecraft. These costs must be  considered when looking at the total cost of a spacecraft. A new pyrotechnic system development cost can be $2 to $5 million dollars, depending on the operational requirements, number of interlocks required  for range safety, and the type system chosen. For this reason, many spacecraft use previously designed systems and stay within the previously qualified requirement ranges. This introduces additional analysis  and spacecraft design costs. Elimination of these systems and changing to standard solenoid driver  systems offers large program-level component development cost savings beyond the cost of the valve itself. However, the valves also must be developed and qualified. Each valve must be shown to be reliable through batch and or lot testing. As many as 5 to 10 valves can be lost from a build due to lot testing required to assure the valves function as specified. These tests destroy the valves, so the cost to  the must include these lot/batch testing units. If there are only 4 valves on a spacecraft, lot testing could more than double the unit cost of the valve.  Operational Costs:  Operations costs associated with working around pyrotechnic devices can be  significant. The vehicles must be designed for late in-process access to install the devices’ igniters. These  generally have been removed to prevent inadvertent initiation caused by stray electrical signals and  system check-outs. When the spacecraft systems are loaded onto the launch vehicle and the vehicle is  rolled to the launch pad, technicians must install the initiators/igniters within a few hours of the launch.  This late access costs time and money, not only in the manpower to actually do the work, but in the design of the spacecraft, launch systems, and ground towers to allow access late in the launch flow.  472