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Audit Finds Problems with ISS Management
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 This includes missing, inconsistent, or outdated technical drawings; inadequately trained staff, and analysis of failure trends that is 'severely lacking'.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."
It's called "Mir", not Mire.
Audits of nearly any bureaucratic program is bound to find all sorts of excesses and general problems in the program's methodologies. Bureaucracies tend to function in ways that perpetuate themselves. Whole processes and procedures are created in order to extend the need and scope of the bureaucracy. In a large enough organization you can create an Office of Redundant Redundancy and no one would notice until the organization was thoroughly audited.
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.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
So we're flying a large, noisy, semi-empty garage in space, and it is so under-staffed (2 people instead of 2.5 required to maintain it) that we can't even use it for scientific experiments.
Actually, in a recent issue of Nature they spoke of planning experiments to search for Lorentz violation aboard the ISS. They include a Michelson-Morley type experiment and some involving atomic clocks (?!). The experiments are being pushed by Stephan Schiller and Peter Wolf (the men who brought you OPTIS) 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.
From the NASA site:
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 (3.5Mb PDF)
There is at least one major astrophysics experiment planned for ISS: the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a huge particle-physics detector with a superconducting magnet. It will sit on the truss, facing out into space, and measure cosmic rays. From anomalies in high-energy particle and antiparticle spectra, we can learn about dark matter, antimatter, and other topics. Launch in 2007. 13 nation/55 university/488 physicist collaboration. Check it out!