Consider again NASA’s decision problem described in Problem 7. Use the PrecisionTree add-in to depict this decision problem as an influence diagram. Then use your influence diagram representation to find the course of action that minimizes NASA’s expected total cost. Summarize your results.

Problem 7

In designing a new space vehicle, NASA needs to decide whether to provide 0, 1, or 2 backup systems for a crucial component of the vehicle. The first backup system, if included, comes into use only if the original system fails. The second backup system, if included, comes into use only if the original system and the first backup system both fail. NASA engineers claim that each system, independently of the others, has a 1% chance of failing if called into use. Each backup system costs $70,000 to produce and install within the vehicle. Once the vehicle is in flight, the mission will be scrubbed only if the original system and all backups fail. The cost of a scrubbed mission, in addition to production costs, is assessed to be $8,000,000. 

a. Generate a risk profile for each of NASA’s possible decisions in this problem.

b. Construct a decision tree to identify the course of action that minimizes NASA’s expected total cost in this case.