NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) recently released NPR 8715.24, Planetary Protection Provisions for Robotic Extraterrestrial Missions, effective Sept. 24, 2021. The new NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) covers the agency’s new paradigm and overall approach to Planetary Protection and takes the place of the now cancelled NPR 8020.12D, Planetary Protection Provisions for Robotic Extraterrestrial Missions to integrate Planetary Protection. 

Recently, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) updated its Planetary Protection policy for the Moon, including adding Category II sub-designations to accommodate missions to different regions. The new Category IIa and IIb designations reflect the importance of the Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) to science and the Artemis generation of human exploration.

Captain Randy Cruz, former senior advisor to the NASA administrator, received a “Yes, If” coin on July 23, for serving as a constant advocate for Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) at NASA.

NASA-STD-8719.26A, NASA Requirements for Ground Based Non-Code Metallic Pressure Vessels went into effect May 11, 2021. This standard is intended to manage risk to personnel, facilities, missions and the environment posed by the use of existing ground-based, non-code metallic Pressure Vessels that either 1) do not comply with applicable American Society of Mechanical Engineers code requirements specified in Occupational Safety and Health Administration 29 CFR pt. 1910 regulations or 2) were modified and no longer comply with the code.

The NASA Software Assurance Research Program (SARP) is sponsoring four research projects in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to benefit Software Assurance processes across the agency. The research program is aligned to support agency goals to improve how NASA performs Software Assurance activities.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made headlines in April after successfully completing the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet besides Earth. Ingenuity’s tremendous success demonstrates the continuing evolution of NASA’s Risk Management processes for infusing commercial technologies into space missions. While rightly described as a “high-risk, high-reward” technology demonstration, Ingenuity is completely based on well-reasoned and disciplined engineering analysis and methodical risk identification and mitigation schemes.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Layered Pressure Vessel Risk Mitigation project team designed software to simplify and improve calculations required by the ASTM E1921, Standard Test Method for Determination of Reference Temperature, T0, for Ferritic Steels in the Transition Range.

The June 2021 Issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. This issue provides updates since February 2021, including two on-orbit breakups, a historical review of the Goldstone Orbital Debris Radar, and a tribute to former NASA Chief Scientist Nick Johnson, who recently passed away.

Though they may not know her by name, NASA employees are familiar with the programs, initiatives and products created by Dr. Tracy Dillinger. She manages two key programs for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance: Safety Culture and Human Factors. She also served as the chair of the agency Safety Culture Working Group and agency Human Factors Task Force, is responsible for the NASA Safety Culture Survey, Safety Culture courses, NASA Human Factor Analysis and Classification training, the NASA Annual Human Factors report, and NASA Organizational Safety Assessments.

The latest issue of the EEE Parts Bulletin covers news from the Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts discipline from October 2020 through May 2021.