Stephen B. Johnson – författare

System Health Management: with Aerospace Applications provides the first complete reference text for System Health Management (SHM), the set of technologies and processes used to improve system dependability. Edited by a team of engineers and consultants with SHM design, development, and research experience from NASA, industry, and academia, each heading up sections in their own areas of expertise and co-coordinating contributions from leading experts, the book collates together in one text the state-of-the-art in SHM research, technology, and applications. It has been written primarily as a reference text for practitioners, for those in related disciplines, and for graduate students in aerospace or systems engineering. There are many technologies involved in SHM and no single person can be an expert in all aspects of the discipline.System Health Management: with Aerospace Applications provides an introduction to the major technologies, issues, and references in these disparate but related SHM areas. Since SHM has evolved most rapidly in aerospace, the various applications described in this book are taken primarily from the aerospace industry. However, the theories, techniques, and technologies discussed are applicable to many engineering disciplines and application areas.Readers will find sections on the basic theories and concepts of SHM, how it is applied in the system life cycle (architecture, design, verification and validation, etc.), the most important methods used (reliability, quality assurance, diagnostics, prognostics, etc.), and how SHM is applied in operations (commercial aircraft, launch operations, logistics, etc.), to subsystems (electrical power, structures, flight controls, etc.) and to system applications (robotic spacecraft, tactical missiles, rotorcraft, etc.).

How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer-systems management-in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency. Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted-a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."