NASA named Dr. J. Nick Benardini as the agency Planetary Protection Officer within the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, effective June 7.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Workmanship Standards program recently updated NASA-STD-8739.6, Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards to

• Align with changes in industry standards
• Expand Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) control requirements
• Clarify training requirements
• Reflect changes in other NASA Policy Directives and NASA Procedural Requirements

The Human Factors Task Force is hosting a virtual NASA Human Factors Analysis and Classifications System (NASAHFACS) training and certification course, available to NASA personnel interested in learning about the impact of Human Factors across the agency. The three-day certification course will be July 27-29, 2021, via Microsoft Teams.

The NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program is working to further advance packaging technology that has become a critical feature of modern Electrical, Electronic, Electromechanical and Electro-optical parts. In collaboration with its academic partner Georgia Tech, the NEPP Program is exploring 2.5/3D glass substrate technology for space applications.

Two recent changes to NASA policy directly affect NASA’s Construction Safety community and its commercial suppliers and contractors. These changes went into effect Feb. 1, 2021. 

The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter will take its first steps toward demonstrating powered flight in the Martian atmosphere, with a first attempt at a powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet scheduled for no earlier than April 8, 2021. The helicopter rode to Mars in the Perseverance Rover's belly pan and will be deployed for flight testing from the red planet's surface in April. 

Recent updates to NPR 8735.2, Hardware Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Programs and Projects consolidate Office of Safety and Mission Assurance policy into a hierarchy, make life cycle Quality Assurance more obvious without increasing prescription, and present approaches and solutions for a set of mission assurance objectives. 

NASA uses the Programmable Josephson Voltage Standard (PJVS) to ensure the agency’s calibrations include the most accurate voltage measurement with the lowest measurement uncertainty possible. 

Langley Research Center is actively using state-of-the-art Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) modeling and simulation tools to accelerate the adoption of advanced materials and ensure the safety of aging infrastructure.

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. See the latest updates as of February 2021.