WASHINGTON -- A NASA safety watchdog organization chartered in the wake of the space shuttle Columbia accident will begin life with a $45 million budget and four problems to tackle right out of the starting gate.
But only one item on the safety centers inaugural To-Do list has anything to do with the space shuttle.
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has been called upon by the space shuttle program to look into a long-standing concern with the grease that lubricates the orbiters rudder speed brake actuator.
In addition to that one shuttle issue, NESC engineers have also been asked to bring their expertise to bear on a pair of robotic rovers en route to Mars, an Earth science satellite still in development and an experimental hypersonic flight demonstration preparing to return to flight after a launch mishap in 2001.
NESC Director Ralph Roe Jr., said troubleshooting these four problems is meant to serve as a trial run for a new organization that once fully up and operating is meant to provide some serious mental muscle for NASAs safety and mission assurance officials.Up and running since early October, the NESC has a full time staff of 34 working out of its base of operations at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Roe said another 30 to 40 full timers are spread through the agencys field centers.
That number is expected to ramp up over time, with the NESC drawing experts from throughout the government and private industry to help tackle NASAs thorniest technical problems -- including problems that could pose a grave danger to future shuttle flights.
Roe said the NESC, rather than starting off with such life and death matters, is cutting its teeth on important, but relatively straightforward problems.
For example, the NESC will work with the Mars Exploration Program to review entry and landing plans for the twin orbiters Spirit and Opportunity on schedule to reach the Red Planet in January.
Roe said NESC engineers will also help trouble shoot an issue with the propulsion system onboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) spacecraft, a joint U.S.-French mission in development and slated to launch in 2004.
Finally, the NESC is looking into concerns about the aerodynamics of NASAs X-43A, an experimental hypersonic research craft on the verge of returning to flight after a 2001 launch mishap destroyed one of its sister craft.
"Each of these four we picked are not overly complex and provide us the opportunity to use the processes we defined early on here to make sure we have all our bases covered," Roe said.
Roe said the NESC expects to prove its mettle with this initial crop of problems before ramping up to become a broad base organization capable of serving as a "second set of eyes" for nearly every program in NASAs portfolio.
The former manager of the space shuttle vehicle engineering office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the NESC will bring together NASAs best and brightest to "improve safety through engineering excellence."
"We want to uncover problems before they occur," Roe said. "We are going to put a strong emphasis on being proactive."
About half of the centers first year budget of $45 million will be spent on testing and engineering analysis, not personnel, Roe said.
"As a team we have adopted the motto, in god we trust, all others bring data," Roe said
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