Collaborative, tailored, anonymous surveys identify sources of errors in unmanned space flight control environments  (2008)

Since many aerospace accidents have been caused by organizational and socio-technical problems, it is crucial to identify and eliminate as many of these problems as possible. The question is how to do so early on, before an accident results. One approach is to survey individuals in the organization, using their perceptions to identify problems. Unfortunately, most surveys in aerospace have not been designed to do this. They have not focused on areas which have contributed to past aerospace accidents, nor have these surveys been specific enough in identifying problems so that the problems can be addressed. We describe a type of survey which accomplishes these goals. We give examples of how such surveys have successfully identified problems in unmanned and manned space operations, and how the results were used to address these problems and reduce risk. Finally, we suggest that safety oversight groups address organizational and socio-technical problems as well as purely technical problems.

+ Dismukes, Robert

+ Parke, Bonny

+ Dismukes, Robert

+ Ocular Imaging Laboratory

anonymous, Collaborative, control, environments, errors, flight, identify, sources, space, surveys, tailored, unmanned

In H. Lacoste-Francis (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety Conference(Rome, Italy). The Netherlands: ESA Publications

  Parke_Dismukes_2008_identify_errors_space.pdf (Download Acrobat Reader )
  (193KB) (application/pdf)