Audit Finds Problems with ISS Management 82
SuperBanana writes "According to an AP story carried by the Boston Globe, an internal audit released yesterday by NASA found numerous problems with management of the station, in some ways similar to the problems in the shuttle program. This includes missing, inconsistent, or outdated technical drawings; inadequately trained staff, and analysis of failure trends that is 'severely lacking'. Despite the report's length(172 pages) no specifics are cited. The report is not yet available in the press section of NASA's site."
You know... (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, in the last while we've heard of Challenger breaking apart, a space suit malfunction and a faulty file system on the Mars probe. However, it must be noted that they almost always figure out the problem, afterwards.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is not that process audits aren't done they are. Both private and personal organizations have regular audits performed and reports like this generated. The real problem is that, in many cases, those with the power to make substantive changes (management) simply don't want to do so because it's too expensive, whether in terms of time, money, or other resources, and it requires some disaster to really motivate them.
So what you get are organizations that are always fixing the previous generation of problems. Challenges morph over time, and if you're fixing the problems you should have fixed ten years ago, and as cheaply as possible, then you're probably not fixing the problems you need to fix now, looking ahead to the challenges you'll be facing over the next few years.
$$$_ (Score:5, Interesting)
And let people really doing the stuff cut through red tape when approporiate to save money for important things. If a component is not safety-critical and available cheaply off the shelf (say a notebook to check e-mail), let the engineer pick it up in Fry's and expense it rather than going through government bidding, approval and so on. Save that for things like ceramic tiles.
Re:$$$_ (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:$$$_ (Score:1, Insightful)
The "sometimes yes" projects you mention probably picked cost and quality over speed. That is all.
Re:$$$_ (Score:2)
sounds like every IT job i've had (Score:1)
i mean - not having up-to-date schematics of the space station? wtf? and then they wonder when pieces break off and go floating off into space?
yikes...
Re:You know... (Score:3, Insightful)
Heck, in the last while we've heard of Challenger breaking apart, a space suit malfunction and a faulty file system on the Mars probe.
However, it must be noted that they almost always figure out the problem, afterwards.
I'd hate to burst your bubble but both the Challenger and Columbia incidents were issues that the engineers had foreseen. Unfortunately in both cases, engineers had warned their supervisor
NASA To ISS Managment: (Score:5, Funny)
ISS: What, what am I doing, can you give me specifics?
NASA: If you don't know, then I'm not telling!
Re:NASA To ISS Managment: (Score:5, Funny)
Some of the problems (Score:2)
No hand brake.
No headlights.
Horn is not working.
Re:NASA To ISS Managment: (Score:1)
Duct tape anyone (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Duct tape anyone (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Duct tape anyone (Score:2)
Mire [reference.com]
You're forgetting (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is suprising? (Score:5, Insightful)
The job of an auditor is to find weaknesses. Like any profession its their job to satisify their existance and to find issues, no matter how big or how small.
I havent read the article (in true Slashdot style - I'm actually writing up some design docs right now!) but I'd say what they have found is typical of any normal IT / technology company where their process is never updated to the standards of their documentation.
Re:And this is suprising? (Score:5, Funny)
1 - You didn't state whether you are or are not a lawyer, which is essential for the proper functioning of this organisation.
2- Throughout the slashdot community, it is considered acceptable practice not to RTFA. excuses made include, but are not limited to: "not wanting to add to the slashdot effect", "everybody does it" and "FP! OMFG! ROTFLMAO!" This kind of laxity needs to be remedied if this organisation is to remain competitive in today's hostile economic climate.
Our team suggest, outsourcing the posting of comments to emerging Asian markets.
PS. Your bill for this consultation will arrive ASAP.
This really burns me (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, we're cancelling the Hubble servicing mission because of safety concerns - which are very real concerns, but unfixable only because of a political decision that we'd rather go to Mars.
I'm all for the ISS, actually - I love the idea that humanity will not have all its eggs in one basket ever again. Even if the other basket is in a very low orbit around the first one for now, it's a start! But it's sad to watch the old pioneering spirit reduced to election campaign sound bites and random mismanagement, while we shortchange the real science.
Re:This really burns me (Score:5, Insightful)
Now this I have to disagree with, the shuttle is a deathtrap because it's an overcomplicated compromise between disparate goals and every attempt to produce a replacement has been deliberately killed off - after all, it's not the McDonnell Douglas people who crashed the DC-X.
The orbital space plane is basically an update of the 1960s era X-20 DynaSoar with a more streamlined look about it. It cant replace the shuttle because it has almost no cargo capacity.
IMNSHO what is required is something like the DC-X, a new fully reusable design which can be turned around in a matter of days instead of months, but with enough capacity to replace the cargo hauling now being done by the shuttle. If it's done well enough hopefully flying to orbit could be as safe and routine as international passenger flights are today.
Re:This really burns me (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, in a recent issue of Nature [nature.com] they spoke of planning experiments to search for Lorentz violation aboard the ISS. They include a Michelson-Morley [wolfram.com] type experiment and some involving atomic clocks (?!). The experiments are being pushed by Stephan Schiller and Peter Wolf (the men who brought you OPTIS [uni-duesseldorf.de]) They state they hope for this to begin around 2005. Unfortunatly, a subscription is required to view the article and it was rather light on detail, yet it shows there is indeed hope for the ISS as a science platform.
Re:This really burns me (Score:4, Interesting)
Killing Hubble is a political decision, nothing more. It pleases Bush&Co because it shows NASA's dedication to Bush's crazy Mars plan, frees up resources and makes it clear to all tech-savvy people that Shuttle is a white elephant and it is nothing what was promised in late 70s and early 80s. I'm not saying Shuttle was a while elephant from the start but just because it existed no replacement was properly funded.
About one basket and eggs scenario, unless you send a good amount of mixed-gender people to ISS nothing good will happen if something happens to Earth. I really don't care about some useless seeds of a cocky Astronaut if there are no eggs to fertilise. They can whack themselves to no end in free fall.
Re:This really burns me (Score:3, Informative)
Sound just like a US goverenment document... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sound just like a US goverenment document... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sound just like a US goverenment document... (Score:5, Funny)
Outdated drawings? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like a prime example of a typical auditor's chickenshit [worldwar2history.info]-mentality.
Any project - not to mention a project of this size - is bound to have holes in the documentation, inventory or accounting. Documents get misplaced, tools and materials get stolen/wasted/lost and some spending cannot be accounted for.
Re:Outdated drawings? (Score:5, Insightful)
NASA has lost its soul (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever since the shuttle boondoggle, where we were promised all manner of stuff, and instead, ended up with *that* thing... A wasteful, expensive, heavy, obsolete white elephant of a space craft that tried to be everything to everybody and ended up doing nothing well.
Who's gonna get excited by a space program that perpetuates a lie? We've spend billions to keep 30-year-old rust-bucket space technology working that should have been scrapped before it was ever completed.
Now, other countries (China, India, etc) are moving in to fill the vacuum left behind by 30 years of neglect on the part of NASA. The best thing we could do is to disband it, and rebuild a *real* space program, and one that allowed (encouraged?) private enterprise participation.
There's money to be made on space, if our benevolent govt will allow it.
-Ben
Re:NASA has lost its soul (Score:5, Insightful)
The old (ancient?) Soyuz launcher is a nice example: Nearly 1700 launches up until now, most of them sucessfull. It is in fact so cost effective, that Arianespace is planing to use Soyuz at Guiana Space Center from 2006 on (as well continuing to use them in Baikonur).
Re:NASA has lost its soul (Score:2, Insightful)
Security? Paaaah.
Re:NASA has lost its soul (Score:2, Insightful)
There's nothing wrong with 30-year-old rust-bucket space technology as long as it does its work cheap and reliable.
And the Shuttle is none of these.
Russian Welfare (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that these Russian rocket scientists:
I'd say that this is more a question of NASA and the US government not wanting to waste billions in reinventing the wheel.
MartRe:Russian Welfare (Score:2)
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:2)
It's remarkably easy to build stuff cheap when you don't have to pay your workers, when your factories were built for free (no mortgage), when your raw materials were obtained for virtually free, when your workers and vendors go virtually unpaid..
Except they don't, not really. MIR spent th
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:2)
Mir was opened up in 1986. The first shuttle mission to Mir occurred in 1995. Shuttle missions to mir continued for 3 years, into 1998. Mir was effectively abandoned in 1999, and de-orbit happened in 2001.
From 1986 till 1999
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:2)
Yes, they do. But you have to look at *all* the numbers and *all* the facts. Of the 13 years Mir was operational, they USA participated for only 3. Shuttle missions continued for three years, but American dollars both proceeded and followed the Shuttle missions.
Between the Shuttle and cash payments, almost 30% of MIRs final mass was courtesy of America. By lifetime, over half of the MIRs lifetime relied directly or indirectly on the Americans.
The situation is actually
Re:Russian Welfare (Score:2, Interesting)
Without participation in the ISS, Russia would still be taking space tourists to Mir.
Re:NASA has lost its soul (Score:2)
In Business America, if a manager want to axe someone, all they have to do write up every little flaw, every little gaff, every little hiccup. They'll give the employee a bad review. Then one day they plant a big folder of all the "problems" on a table and instruct the employee to find another job.
I wonder if the audit is part of a larger plan to justify a shut down of the ISS.
yeah (Score:3, Funny)
Surprising? No. (Score:5, Interesting)
A store I worked at had NASA employees purchase 10 Creative Nomad Jukeboxes as marked the LPO as 'mobile hard-disk". Many instances like this had taken place. Blatent missuse of budgeted money.
Ever wonder why we haven't had a manned mission to Mars? Partly because their purchasing policies are flawed. Partly because emlpoyees are allowed to spend $4000 on MP3 players, slip it through the system, and listen to Jungle Boogie instead of doing real science.
Opportunity makes a theif...
Re:Surprising? No. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Surprising? No. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Surprising? No. (Score:5, Interesting)
Then big company came in and bought us out. Money from venture capitalists flooded our organization. Highly paid management professionals were brought in to optimize our operations. Pride in workmanship flew out the window, to be replaced by whatever got the immediate job at hand done cheapest. We no longer fixed our stuff - we had support contracts. Who cared if we even knew how it worked? But now we had dress codes. Oooh, didn't we look all pretty with our suits and ties! Well, we did get paid better, and dressing the part went with the privilege of being kept on the payroll. But who cared if you spent day and night working on some little quirk you didn't thoroughly understand? Or if you knew how to build something you needed - when you could just throw cash at the problem and gloss it over with some powerpoint presentations? With the mass infusions of cash, technical knowledge seemed to become much less important than management skills. It seemed everybody wanted the latest presentation software, and no-one wanted a thing to do with the old circuit analysis software we had used for years. Having the snazziest system on your desk and office decor seemed to be what everyone wanted. It flat was not fun to work there anymore. It seemed it became dog-eat-dog. They moved us out of the lab and into cubicles. The took our coffee machine away and gave us "secretarial services". Dammit, I was just about born with a soldering iron in my hand...not a Franklin Day Planner!
Everytime I have seen a mass infusion of money into something, it seems to ruin it. The first time I noted this effect, it was in a school system, where when a lot of money was granted into the system, the first thing they did was buy a bunch of unnecessary stuff which then mandated substantial resources to maintain it. Not only that, it completely showed all of us that were volunteering our efforts just how insignificant we were. Just think, who needs to know how to build an oscilloscope from scratch in an electronics class when you could just tweak the knobs on the latest models? I still remember the joys of going into my old EICO and fixing whatever I smoked when I misused the thing ( usually the FET on the frontend differential amp when I got a nasty inductive kickback from a relay coil. )
Answer me this: If a college has an assortment of older oscilloscopes ( some are in need of repair ), and the students not only learn to use the scopes that work, they also learn to fix the broken ones, do you think they got a better education than the ones who only got to use later scopes, but have no idea what's actually in them?
At the college I am attending right now, I am taking some automotive courses. I am doing a "special studies" program... you see, they have an old infrared exhaust analyzer that is no longer functional. I am having a helluva time taking that old thing apart, figuring out how the infrared chopper worked, and will hopefully build an interface so I can send the signals through a A/D converter so I can drop it into a computer. When I get through with that thing, I expect not only to have a helluva good idea of how NonDispersive Infrared analyzers ( CO, CO2, HC ) work, but also how the UV analyzers ( NO, NO2 ), and oxygen sensors work. Not only will I know when a machine is giving me funny readings I can't trust, I will know how to go into the machine, locate the funny and fix it.
Here's the crux of the problem... If I do not know how the machine works and how it arrives at its answers, I probably won't know if the machine is malfunction
Whoa! Big Surprise! (Score:4, Interesting)
172 Pages (Score:2, Insightful)
That does it... (Score:1)
They Needed an Audit?! (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, oops...
Prelude to killing ISS? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Prelude to killing ISS? (Score:4, Insightful)
A few weeks ago, I made a post somewhere else about running independent audits on the government by an outside firm (or two). My guess was that in the course of a given year, something like $100 billion could be picked out as inefficiencies, waste, fraud, or abuse. Following a report last week about the Secret Service -- hardly the biggest agency -- unable to account for a few billion on its own, I wonder if my guess was far too low.
Re:Prelude to killing ISS? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prelude to killing ISS? (Score:2)
Redhat (Score:4, Informative)
I don't see why the ISS is sending people outside to check on the status of the station. Instead of using people for spacewalks why not micro/nanosats? They could be launched from a future shuttle mission or given to the crew in a resupply flight and launched from the airlock. It's need a radio tranceiver, control electronics, and a small CMOS or CCD camera. The AFRL has been working on nanosats for several years now and has a few prototypes. A nanosat cluster was supposed to be launched last year on the shuttle but I don't think it went up before the fleet was grounded. The PICOSat however was launched successfully and was built using COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) technology. The exterior of the station would be monitored regularly and docking procedures could be monitored from an advantageous angle.
Re:Redhat (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is, NASA is very conservative. They like experiments but Astronauts really hate change. Nothing has changed since 1970
Report is Available (Score:4, Informative)
2.27.04 - Implementation Plan for International Space Station Continuing Flight - NASA releases an update to its plan demonstrating a commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, where applicable, to the International Space Station program.
+ Read the Plan [nasa.gov] (3.5Mb PDF)
'Quality' is the first thing to go.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Soon, we will give up on manned space (Score:5, Interesting)
All that ended decades ago. No manned submersible in operation today can go to the deepest part of the ocean. All the undersea habitats are defunct except for Aquarius [uncw.edu], which the University of North Carolina now owns and struggles to fund. It's over.
Manned operations in the deep ocean never became cheaper or safer. They're possible, but not useful. Deep ocean work belongs to robots today.
Much the same thing has happened to space. All remaining manned space operations are ego trips for governments. All useful work is unmanned.
Someday this may change, but it won't be done using chemically fueled rockets.
Haven't RTFA'ed, but... (Score:2)
I thought it said "IIS" (Score:2)
????ehh???? (Score:1)