good article and links on 'tin whiskers' avionics hazard



Close Shave? NASA Dismisses Sn Whisker Worries

http://circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/3490/95/

By Mike Buetow

Friday, 09 June 2006

WASHINGTON, DC -- NASA has decided to push forward with next month's
scheduled launch of its Discovery space shuttle, even in light of an
internal report that noted the presence of tin whiskers in some computer
avionics boxes.

NASA's decision is a rebuttal to a recent report by The Aerospace
Corporation, which found that "The flight rationale currently proposed that
would allow flight 'as is' of critical Flight Control System (FCS) avionics
boxes suspected of whisker infestation cannot be validated with the
available data and, therefore, is not acceptable for flight.

...snip

NASA is aware of tin whisker-related problems: It's Goddard Space
Flight Center maintains a Web site that lists historical failures due to tin
whiskers (http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/index.html).

snip