Location

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/ Discovery Rooms

Start Date

26-4-1994 2:00 PM

End Date

26-4-1994 5:00 PM

Description

The goal of the Human Factors Engineering (HFE) pilot project undertaken by NASA on the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is to demonstrate the advantages of using Human Factors to support NASA Safety. The primary objective of the project is to demonstrate how Human Factors can assist in decreasing the causes of accidents by reducing error producing situations. The project began with a review of design drawings for the SSPF, in which all Human Factors (HF) concerns were identified especially those that affected personnel safety, pay load protection, and operational efficiency. Visits to other KSC facilities produced insights that could be applied to the drawing critiques when the drawings were not sufficient to disclose how the facility's characteristics would fulfill operational needs. Overall, the drawing review revealed a broad range of HF and Safety concerns. When possible, these concerns were discussed with the appropriate engineering personnel to effect workable solutions. To date, some of these HF & Safety concerns have been resolved by incorporating HF principles. Thus, this project has reduced potential problems that can contribute to accidents and costly delays, such as the Magellan Spacecraft incident in October of 1988. This incident typifies payload processing problems that can develop unexpectedly within any processing facility when Human Factors issues are either ignored or overlooked in the initial design of the spacecraft or in developing appropriate service and checkout procedures. Although the problem occurred on a spacecraft, this type of problem also could easily occur within a processing facility, on payloads that are being processed, or on the ground support equipment being used to process the payloads. In addition, this project has led to the evaluation of candidate methods for the implementation of HF. Among these, a means of conducting HF evaluations during Engineering Prototyping in a Computer Aided Design environment. This innovative technique is expected to demonstrate the Safety advantage and substantial cost savings of incorporating HF principles.

Comments

Space Station

Session Chairman: Robert Parker, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Session Organizer: Shaman Mullick, Advanced Programs, Harris Space Systems Corporation

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Apr 26th, 2:00 PM Apr 26th, 5:00 PM

Paper Session I-A - An Examination of the Human Factors Support of NASA's Safety Directorate on the Space Station Processing Facility

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/ Discovery Rooms

The goal of the Human Factors Engineering (HFE) pilot project undertaken by NASA on the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is to demonstrate the advantages of using Human Factors to support NASA Safety. The primary objective of the project is to demonstrate how Human Factors can assist in decreasing the causes of accidents by reducing error producing situations. The project began with a review of design drawings for the SSPF, in which all Human Factors (HF) concerns were identified especially those that affected personnel safety, pay load protection, and operational efficiency. Visits to other KSC facilities produced insights that could be applied to the drawing critiques when the drawings were not sufficient to disclose how the facility's characteristics would fulfill operational needs. Overall, the drawing review revealed a broad range of HF and Safety concerns. When possible, these concerns were discussed with the appropriate engineering personnel to effect workable solutions. To date, some of these HF & Safety concerns have been resolved by incorporating HF principles. Thus, this project has reduced potential problems that can contribute to accidents and costly delays, such as the Magellan Spacecraft incident in October of 1988. This incident typifies payload processing problems that can develop unexpectedly within any processing facility when Human Factors issues are either ignored or overlooked in the initial design of the spacecraft or in developing appropriate service and checkout procedures. Although the problem occurred on a spacecraft, this type of problem also could easily occur within a processing facility, on payloads that are being processed, or on the ground support equipment being used to process the payloads. In addition, this project has led to the evaluation of candidate methods for the implementation of HF. Among these, a means of conducting HF evaluations during Engineering Prototyping in a Computer Aided Design environment. This innovative technique is expected to demonstrate the Safety advantage and substantial cost savings of incorporating HF principles.

 

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