[aij]

I had heard about tin whiskers, but always in relation to NASA. I had assumed it was only a problem in space, somehow related to lack of gravity and/or atmosphere.

Apparently it's just that NASA cares about reliability more than most, and hence takes the time to do more detailed failure analyses.

Thanks for linking those slides.

[robomartin]

NASA has done tons of research on this over decades. I have read most of the papers they published and worked with a couple of their researchers. While the context was aerospace, the effect happens on earth just as well. Pretty much all of their tests are done on the ground.

[blattimwind]

The reason lead was added to solder in the ~30s-40s was tin whiskers. Think about how huge components and pitches were back then and they still noticed tin whiskers and changed the solder to avoid them.

[LorenPechtel]

Repairing a satellite in flight is effectively impossible. Thus NASA cares far more about how long something will last than most users.