Search

• This article discusses the safety contribution of a public administration scholar specialised in space policy, Howard McCurdy. • First, it contends that McCurdy's research on NASA and (post) bureaucracy has been overlooked in the field whereas it provides a valuable lens to the understanding of reliability, safety and performance of safety–critical systems. • Second, the article argues that McCurdy's research brings novel and valuable insights to important safety debates. • The relevance of McCurdy's lens is then illustrated using SpaceX as a case study, an example of the new developments in organising space exploration with their safety related challenges, moving from public to private initiatives. • In " Reinterrogating the past ", it is argued that McCurdy's research provides a bridge between what was once framed as two opposite theses, normal accident versus high-reliability organisation. • In " challenging the present " it is argued that more recent debates and controversies triggered by the " new view " might not be as new as currently thought and advocated. This article discusses the safety contribution of a public administration scholar specialised in space policy, Howard McCurdy. Its aim is twofold. First, it contends that McCurdy's research on NASA and (post) bureaucracy has been overlooked in the field whereas it provides a valuable lens to the understanding of reliability, safety and performance of safety–critical systems. This contention requires bringing to the fore McCurdy' extensive study of NASA and his rationale over several decades. Second, the article argues that McCurdy's research brings novel and valuable insights to important safety debates. Following a methodological section, the article explains his analysis of the engineering, organisational, and political complexities and challenges experienced by NASA's employees over more than sixty years of the agency's lifetime, developing a unique longitudinal and multilevel study of reliability, safety and performance. The relevance of McCurdy's lens is then illustrated using SpaceX as a case study, an example of the new developments in organising space exploration with their safety related challenges, moving from public to private initiatives. In the discussion, the article explores the value of this author for past and contemporary debates on reliability, safety and performance of safety–critical systems. In " Reinterrogating the past ", it is argued that McCurdy's research provides a bridge between what was once framed as two opposite theses, normal accident versus high-reliability organisation. In " challenging the present " it is argued that more recent debates and controversies triggered by the " new view " might not be as new as currently thought and advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mars Sample Return is the highest priority science mission for the next decade as recommended by the 2011 Decadal Survey of Planetary Science (Squyres, 2011 [1] ). This article presents the results of a feasibility study for a Mars Sample Return mission that efficiently uses emerging commercial capabilities expected to be available in the near future. The motivation of our study was the recognition that emerging commercial capabilities might be used to perform Mars Sample Return with an Earth-direct architecture, and that this may offer a desirable simpler and lower cost approach. The objective of the study was to determine whether these capabilities can be used to optimize the number of mission systems and launches required to return the samples, with the goal of achieving the desired simplicity. All of the major element required for the Mars Sample Return mission are described. Mission system elements were analyzed with either direct techniques or by using parametric mass estimating relationships. The analysis shows the feasibility of a complete and closed Mars Sample Return mission design based on the following scenario: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle places a modified version of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, referred to as “Red Dragon”, onto a Trans Mars Injection trajectory. The capsule carries all the hardware needed to return to Earth Orbit samples collected by a prior mission, such as the planned NASA Mars 2020 sample collection rover. The payload includes a fully fueled Mars Ascent Vehicle; a fueled Earth Return Vehicle, support equipment, and a mechanism to transfer samples from the sample cache system onboard the rover to the Earth Return Vehicle. The Red Dragon descends to land on the surface of Mars using Supersonic Retropropulsion. After collected samples are transferred to the Earth Return Vehicle, the single-stage Mars Ascent Vehicle launches the Earth Return Vehicle from the surface of Mars to a Mars phasing orbit. After a brief phasing period, the Earth Return Vehicle performs a Trans Earth Injection burn. Once near Earth, the Earth Return Vehicle performs Earth and lunar swing-bys and is placed into a Lunar Trailing Orbit-an Earth orbit, at lunar distance. A retrieval mission then performs a rendezvous with the Earth Return Vehicle, retrieves the sample container, and breaks the chain of contact with Mars by transferring the sample into a sterile and secure container. With the sample contained, the retrieving spacecraft makes a controlled Earth re-entry preventing any unintended release of Martian materials into the Earth’s biosphere. The mission can start in any one of three Earth to Mars launch opportunities, beginning in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]