Laura Lewis

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

(Phone: 650/604-2162, 650/604-9000)

llewis@mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 00-69AR

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: Media representatives are invited to attend the opening day of NASA’s first “Design for Safety” workshop, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Oct. 10 at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. The workshop will take place in the ballroom of the Moffett Training and Conference Center (Bldg. N-3). Reporters at Ames will be able to interview program managers from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the opening day of the workshop. To get to Ames, take the Moffett Field exit from Highway 101. Bring press credentials and photo ID. Please allow time to obtain badges at the visitor badging office adjacent to the main Ames gate.

A new NASA program dedicated to achieving ultra-high levels of safety and mission success through the infusion of advanced technology will be the subject of an upcoming workshop for government, industry and academia Oct. 10 through 12, 2000, at Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

The “Design for Safety” workshop will explore how intelligent systems and information technologies can be utilized to ensure safety during space missions as well as during complex operations on Earth.

“NASA’s mission requires us to take risks, but we do not take them lightly. Design for Safety will develop a new process to identify risks and hazards early in the design of our most complex systems and help ensure mission success,” said NASA’s Design for Safety program manager Matthew Blake.

NASA Associate Administrator Joseph Rothenberg and other NASA representatives will discuss how the NASA Design for Safety program will improve system safety and risk assessment in partnership with the academic and private sectors. Topics for workshop discussion include knowledge engineering technologies for continuous, quantified risk-advised system engineering; expert knowledge capture and utilization; and intelligent adapting vehicle systems.

For registration and further information about the NASA Design for Safety workshop, visit the program’s web site at: http://www.dfs.nasa.gov