# Presentation: 570139

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

_**Agenda**_
**NESC Overview****	****	****	****Mike Hagopian**
**SPRT Overview****	****	****	****Frank Bauer**
**NESC Processes****	****	****	****Bob Kichak**
**NESC Pathfinders****	**
- Rudder Speed Brake		Bob Kichak
- X-43				Frank Bauer
- Calipso				Mike Hagopian
- MER				Frank Bauer
**Recent Activities**
- Shuttle Anomalies; Flowliner	Mike Hagopian
- ISS CMGs; Cassini; Genesis	Frank Bauer
- FPGAs; Data Integrity		Bob Kichak

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Overview**
**Mike Hagopian**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**On July 15, 2003,       Administrator O’Keefe announced plans to create the NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Langley Research Center.**

**The Center will provide a central location to coordinate and conduct robust, independent engineering and safety assessments across the Agency.**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

**Charter approved by Executive Council on August 1, 2003**
**Management Plan approved October 3, 2003**
**Operational on November 1, 2003**
**Four path-finder assessments  conducted**
**Several Independent Technical Assessments and Consultations on-going**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

***“ ... ******I named my spacecraft Sigma Seven. Sigma, a Greek symbol for the sum of the elements of an equation, stands for engineering excellence. That was my goal – engineering excellence. I would not settle for less ...”***
- From “Schirra’s Space” by Wally Schirra
**NESC’s Goal is Engineering Excellence – We will not settle for less!**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC philosophy and culture**
**Safety through Engineering Excellence**
**Mission Success Starts with Safety**
**Safety Starts with Engineering Excellence****	**

- NESC will cultivate a Safety culture by providing **knowledgeable technical leadership**
- to perform independent in-depth technical assessments in an **open environment**
- with **unequalled tenacity.**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

***“******The safety organization sits right beside the (shuttle) person making the***
***decision, but behind the safety organization there is nothing there, no ***
***people, money, engineering, expertise, analysis.”***
***“ ... ******there is no ‘there’ there”***
**Adm. Harold Gehman**

**What problem are we trying to solve?**

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Problem:****  NASA lacks “value added” independent assessment of technical issues within its programs and institutions. **
**Our safety philosophy has 3 tenets**
**Strong in-line checks and balances**
**Healthy tension**
**“****Value added” independent assessment**
**Example Solutions:****  Large complex problems are solved utilizing “One NASA” philosophy under emergency tiger team approach.**
**Flowliner, BSTRA, Columbia Accident Investigation**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Challenge:**
**	****How do we maintain this “One NASA” Tiger Team approach to provide our programs and institutions much needed independent assessment?**
**Proposed Solution:**
**Establish a NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC)**
**Establish a small NESC management office at LaRC**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Proposed Solution: (cont’d)**
**Decentralized organizational structure across all Centers reporting to the NESC management office**
**Engineers need to be where the problems are to stay sharp**
**Strong systems engineering function for independent trending and systems engineering analysis**
**Small core of engineering experts for insight into respective programs**
**Select and promote best engineers to “dig” for issues and trends**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Proposed Solution: (cont’d)**
**Use “ready” experts at each Center through formal task agreements **
**Establish Super Problem Resolution Teams (SPRTs) by discipline**
**Select recognized Agency discipline experts to lead SPRTs**
**Pool senior engineering resources to attack “trouble spots” **
**Overcome negative connotation of IA by offering our best technical expertise**
**NESC gains its independence by being funded at the Agency level**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Proposed Solution:**
**Establish natural hierarchy of engineering progression **
**Engineers must aspire to be in the NESC**
**Challenging work, visibility, pay and promotion**

## NESC

**NESC**
**Leadership Team/**
**NESC Review Board**

- LaRC

_**Office of the Director**_

- Director - Ralph Roe
- Deputy Director - Dr. Paul Munafo
- Deputy Director for Safety - Larry Crawford
- SMA Integration - John Tinsley (HQ)
- Chief Astronaut - Dr. Steve Hawley (JSC)
- Chief Scientist - Dr. David Leckrone (GSFC)

_**NESC Discipline Experts Office**_

- NASA Centers

- NASA Centers

_**NESC Chief Engineers Office**_

- GRC    - 	Derrick Cheston
- ARC    - 	Dr. Michael Freeman
- SSC    - 	Randy Galloway
- LaRC  - 	Dr. Michael Gilbert
- GSFC - 	Michael Hagopian
- JSC    - 	David Hamilton
- MSFC - 	Danny Johnston
- DFRC - 	Michael Kehoe
- JPL     - 	Matt Landano (Acting)
- KSC    - 	Tim Wilson

_**Principal Engineers Office**_

- LaRC

- Ken Cameron
- Clinton Cragg
- Dr. Richard Gilbrech
- Dr. Charles Harris

_**Systems Engineering Office**_

- LaRC

- Manager – Ralph Roe (Acting)

_**Management & Technical**_
_**Support Office**_

- LaRC

- Manager - Stan Newberry

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**ARC - 2**

- External - 2

**Number of NESC Leadership Team personnel from each Center**

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

**DFRC- 2**

**JPL - 1**

**JSC- 4**

**SSC - 2**

**KSC - 1**

**MSFC - 3**

- 3 leadership positions yet to be filled

**GSFC - 5**

**LaRC - 6**

**HQ - 2**

**GRC - 1**

## Discipline Super Problem Resolution Team (SPRT)

*Mission Success Starts With Safety  •   Safety Starts With Engineering Excellence*

**Discipline**** Super Problem Resolution Team (SPRT)**

**Introduction and Staffing**
**Frank H. Bauer**

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

- NASA lacks “value added” independent assessment of technical issues within its programs and institutions.
- NESC created to provide independent assessment of technical issues
- Scope
- Independent in-depth technical assessments
- Independent trend analysis
- Independent systems engineering analysis
- Mishap Investigations
- Support Programs
- Focus on High Risk Programs
- NESC independent assessment uses discipline experts from across NASA and Nation in Super Problem Resolution Teams

## NESC Principles of Operation

**Proactive – Test and analysis of issues or trends not currently being addressed by the program**
**Active – Independent review of known risk areas**
**Reactive – Independent investigation of mishaps and close calls**
**Set example for safety culture through engineering excellence**
**Encourage/document /disposition dissenting opinions**
**Measure performance with metrics**

## NESC Personnel / Staffing

- NESC permanent staffing includes:
- Principal Engineers located at NASA Langley
- NESC Chief Engineers (NCE) located at each NASA Field Center
- Systems Engineers located across the Agency
- NESC Discipline Experts (NDE) for specific disciplines located across the Agency
- Fluids/Life Support/Thermal, Flight Sciences, Guidance Navigation & Control, Human Factors, Materials, Mechanical Analysis, Mechanical Systems, Non-Destructive Evaluation, Power & Avionics, Propulsion, Software, Structures
- Chief Scientist & Chief Astronaut
- NDE’s, Chief Scientist & Chief Astronaut are the leaders of National expert teams...called Super Problem Resolution Teams (SPRT)

## SPRT’s

- SPRT’s are the backbone of the NESC
- SPRT’s shall have membership from multiple sources
- NASA, industry, academia and other Government Agencies
- SPRT’s will provide technical support of NESC assessments
- Independent expertise/reviews and leadership
- Independent test, analysis and evaluation *– not just technical opinions*
- NESC Discipline Experts working with NASA leadership to identify SPRT membership for each specific discipline
- Changes/additions to SPRT’s will be negotiated with the respective NASA Centers/organizations, as required

## NESC Discipline Expert
Super Problem Resolution Teams (SPRT’s)

**Super Problem Resolution Teams (SPRT’s)**

**NASA Engineering and Safety Center**

## SPRT Discipline Team Model

- SPRTNESC Discipline
- Expert

- Technical Team
- Support

- Core Team Members

- Sub-discipline
- Experts

**SPRT Discipline Team**

## Team Roles & Responsibilities

- Core Team Members
- Provide discipline leadership to SPRTs
- Knowledgeable of several sub-disciplines within SPRT (e.g. for GN&C could be attitude control, gyros, star trackers)
- Possess majority of expertise (50-60%) required to resolve SPRT problems
- Understanding of I/TAI processes so can effectively communicate these to sub-discipline experts when I/TAI started
- Attends bi-weekly SPRT team meeting & face-to-face meetings
- Sub-discipline experts
- Provide “drill down” expertise in specific sub-discipline (e.g. for GN&C could be gyro expert, star tracker expert, trajectory expert, etc)
- On-call to the team
- Attends face-to-face meetings (1-2x yearly)
- Technical Team Support Engineers
- GS-11-13 engineers
- Provide support to SPRT team by setting up meetings and teleconferences, take meeting minutes, participate in discussions (observers, not voting members)
- Enables junior experts to become part of the NESC process and serves vital team function

***Expectation:  Several discipline SPRTs running concurrently***

## NESC SPRTs on ITA/Is

-  Conduct Test, Analysis, Evaluations in their field of expertise in support of NESC ITA/Is
-  Readily Accessible
-  Considered the Best of the Best
-  Matrix support to NESC as Requested
-  On Call to Support an IAT/I
-  Time / resources covered by NESC PWC

**SPRT Core** – 10 to 20 experts with broad based experience and knowledge across the range of the discipline
-  Regular SPRT Telecons (bi-weekly
-  Peer Review of IAT/I Products
-  Think Tank for Discipline
-  Annual Working Group Meetings
-  Low Level Continuous Support to NESC
-  Time Covered via NESC PWC
-  On Call to Support an IAT/I

- NESC Director /
- Review Board (NRB)

- NESC Chief
- Engineers (NCE)

- NESC Discipline
- Experts (NDE)

- NESC Principal
- Engineers (NPE)

- Independent Technical
- Assessment / Inspection
- (ITA/I) Team

- Super Problem Resolution
- Team  (SPRT) Core

- SPRT Tech Experts
- (NASA)

- SPRT Tech Experts
- (Other Govt. Agency)

- SPRT Tech Experts
- (Industry)

- SPRT Tech Experts
- (Academia)

**ITA/I Team – **NESC led team of independent experts conducts independent test, analysis and inspection on selected requests
-  Primarily Led by NPE
-  Could be NDE or NCE
-  Comprised of Discipline SPRT experts

**NESC SPRTs on ITA/Is**

## Benefits to being an SPRT Member

**Provides an opportunity to interact with the best of the best in NASA, Industry, Academia and other Government Agencies**
**Challenging assignments & interaction with discipline experts**
**Invaluable Experience gained helping resolve NASA’s critical issues **
**High Impact / High Feedback / High Visibility / Job Satisfaction**
**Growth through addressing broad spectrum of technical issues and gaining experiences within chosen discipline**
**Problem Resolution Team is a challenging experience**
**Recognition and Interaction within technical discipline**

## Benefits to being an SPRT Member (cont.)

**Exposure to other NASA programs, projects, cultures, methods, business practices across the agency**
**Potential career development experiences and opportunities**
**NESC is pursuing human resource initiatives and benefits to supporting NESC**
**Provides a review team for Programs and Projects members to identify their own project concerns and issues for the SPRT to review and decided if further study/review is required**

## Organization Benefits of Supporting NESC

**Provides employees opportunity to interact with the best of the best in NASA, Industry, Academia & other Government Agencies**
**Comprehensive expertise obtained through NESC agency level experience broadens employees technical experience**
**Across full spectrum of discipline**
**Provides a better employee through this experience**
**Teaches method for problem resolution and how to obtain corrective actions**
**Lead & Participation in a “OneNASA” initiative**
**Exposure to other NASA programs, projects, cultures, methods, business practices across the agency**
**Broadens employee horizons via wide network of interaction**
**Gains experience outside employee’s own work area**
**Potential for NESC funding **
**Recognition of Discipline Expertise within your center/organization**

**NESC Processes**
**Bob Kichak**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes**
**Independent Technical Assessments**
**Technical Inspections**
**Technical Support**
**Technical Advocacy **
**Selection & Prioritization**
**NESC Review Board**
**Knowledge Capture and Communication**
**Mishap Investigation**
**Dissenting Opinions**
**Awards**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes**
**All requests are catalogued and tracked through disposition**
**Multiple sources for requests**
**Insight of NESC members**
**Participation in program boards and panels**
**Independent trend analysis**
**Senior NASA Managers **
**Program/Project Managers or team members**
**Institutional Engineering and S&MA**
**NASA employees**
**NESC Anonymous Reporting System **
**Phone calls/emails**
**NSRS**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes (cont’d)**
**NESC Selection Process**
**Initial request screening completed by Systems Engineering Office**
**Coarse filter screen **
**Two-person rule for rejections/referrals**
**Second screen completed by NESC Chief Engineer (NCE)**
**Research request**
**Conduct risk assessment (NARMA)**
**Board presentation with recommendation **
**NESC Review Board makes final decision by team consensus**
**Accept and support with NESC resources (assessments & inspections)**
**Otherwise, re-direct to another NASA Org**
**Close-loop notification to customer**

*Independent Funding*

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes (cont’d)**
**Assessment and Inspection**
**Teams**
**Led primarily by NESC Principal Eng or NESC Discipline Experts **
**Comprised of engineers from discipline Super Problem Resolution Teams (SPRTs) **
**NASA, industry, national labs, academia and other government agencies**
**Independent from program or project**
**Communication**
**Initial program/project notification**
**POC identification**
**In briefs, exit briefs, status reports, and formal engineering reports**

*Independent Team Members*

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes (cont’d)**
**Reports**
**Written technical engineering reports**
**Based on independent test, analysis, and data review**
**Will include findings, observations, recommendations, and actions**
**Reviewed and approved by NESC Review Board – peer review**
**Only products that have been peer reviewed by the NESC Review Board will use the NESC logo and header**
**Program/project responsible for corrective action and/or reclamas**
**NESC can provide support if requested**
**NESC must concur in corrective action plans and will follow-up as appropriate**

***This briefing is for status only and does not represent complete engineering data analysis***

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Processes (cont’d)**
**Knowledge Capture and Communication**
**A list active NESC assessments, inspections and support activities will be posted to the web site**
**Customers will receive periodic status reports**
**NESC will share results of investigations and inspections**
**Programs and projects will have chance to respond to findings and recommendations prior to releasing reports**
**Final reports will be posted to web site**
**Lessons learned will be presented at quarterly leadership briefings**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Pathfinders****	**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Path-Finder Assessments**
**Orbiter Rudder Speed Brake Actuator Braycote Grease**
**Requested by Space Shuttle Program Manager**
**Assessed the potential breakdown of Braycote grease in the rudder speed brake actuators**
**Discovered planetary gear assembly installed backwards**
**X-43A**
**Requested through a “dissenting opinion” email to the NESC**
**Specific technical concerns with several aerodynamic issues in return to flight approach**
**Worked with project manager to ensure concerns are addressed and properly dispositioned**
**X-43A a resounding success**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**NESC Path-Finder Assessments (cont’d)**
**CALIPSO – Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations**
**Requested by GSFC Deputy Center Director/Center Director**
**Assessed human safety risks associated with the possibility of leakage through threaded mechanical fasteners in a mono-propellant system**
**Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Flight Operations**
**Requested by JPL Safety and Mission Assurance Office**
**Provided human factors review of flight controller operations and review of entry, descent and landing phases---several recommendations provided to the MER team to improve ops**
**Assisted in data review following landing of first rover to determine potential impacts to second rover’s entry, descent and landing phases**

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Recent Activities**
- Shuttle Anomalies; Flowliner	Mike Hagopian
- ISS CMGs; Cassini; Genesis	Frank Bauer
- FPGAs; Data Integrity		Bob Kichak

## NASA Engineering and Safety Center

**Summary:**
**NASA established small decentralized NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC)**
**Utilizes existing senior engineering expertise at the Centers, reporting to NESC management office at LaRC---One NASA**
**Gain independence by funding at Agency level and reporting to Langley Center Director and Codes D and Q**
**Provide “value added” independent assessment by having the best technical expertise available where it is needed most**
***	******	******Safety through Engineering Excellence***
**Maintain the organization through a natural hierarchy of engineering progression**
**See the NESC web site for more information: ****http://nesc.nasa.gov**