Director of NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center
(NESC), based at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton,
Va., reported on the results of initial assessments today.
The NESC was created after the Space Shuttle Columbia
accident to serve as a source of expertise for evaluating the
merits of technical concerns identified by agency employees.
Assessments are performed from a source of funding not
directly linked to any single NASA program or project and
therefore free from any programmatic bias of schedule or
cost.
Results of four NESC Pathfinder studies were shared with
senior NASA leaders and posted to NASA Web sites. The
reporting approach, actively sharing lessons learned, is
modeled after a similar method used by the U.S. Navy Board of
Inspection and Survey.
“I feel very good about what we’ve accomplished in our first
six months,” said NESC Director Ralph Roe. “We have a
talented core of people working within NESC and an
outstanding group of people we can call upon when needed. We
have positive feedback from the partnerships we’ve begun with
industry and academia. We’ve completed our first four
technical assessments. We’re working on several new major
activities, and requests for our services keep coming in,” he
added.
The NESC focus is on the successful Space Shuttle return to
flight and the International Space Station. The NESC is also
involved in other NASA activities, such as providing
independent expertise for the Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion
critical events readiness review.
The initial assessments were related to four major projects:
The Cloud-Aerosol Light Detection and Ranging and Infrared
Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) spacecraft, an
Earth Science satellite set to launch in 2005; the X-43A, a
hypersonic research vehicle that successfully flew in March;
the Space Shuttle orbiter rudder/speed brake system; and the
Mars Exploration Rovers.
CALIPSO is a joint science mission that includes NASA and the
French space agency. A concern about possible leaks of the
spacecraft’s highly reactive fuel from joints in fuel lines
during ground processing led to multiple recommendations to
reduce risk to personnel, the mission and the environment.
The record-breaking hypersonic X-43A did not fly until a
dissenting opinion by one team member was properly addressed.
The employee contacted the NESC with a concern about the
vehicle’s aerodynamic characteristics, which could have lead
to a loss of vehicle control, resulting in failure to achieve
mission objectives. The NESC worked with the X-43A project to
ensure the employee’s concern was properly addressed before
the test flight.
During review of hardware in a Space Shuttle orbiter
rudder/speed brake system, a concern was raised about the
effectiveness of grease in the gear set of the replacement
hardware retrieved from long-term storage. NESC conducted
extensive tests and analyses to determine the grease is still
effective. A lesson learned was programs should periodically
review hardware components to ensure qualification and
certification limits are not exceeded.
Prior to the two Mars Exploration Rover landings in January,
the NESC participated in two program reviews. One review
dealt with the very human challenge of supporting round-the-
clock staffing for a mission to Mars, since the martian day
is 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. The second review
looked at entry, descent and landing data from the first
rover landing as a guide to fine-tuning the entry, descent
and landing of the second rover. While both landings were
successful, the review revealed the spacecraft was not
designed with adequate instrumentation to distinguish the
separate effects of density and drag coefficient errors on
the aerodynamics encountered during entry, descent, and
landing.
For summaries of the four Pathfinder reports, a video clip,
publication quality images and information about NESC on the
Internet, visit:
For information about NASA and agency programs on the
Internet, visit:
