Ingenuity Helicopter to Take Flight in April
April 08, 2021
3-minute read
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.
Read More
NPR 8735.2 Sees Complete Rewrite in Revision C
April 08, 2021
11-minute read
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.
Read More
Help NASA With Its Digital Transformation Strategy
March 30, 2021
3-minute read
NASA’s Safety and Mission Assurance Reliability and Maintainability team is progressing with its Digital Transformation strategy to create solutions that enable seamless data flow and collaboration across centers. Integrating digital technologies will streamline engineering processes and data acquisition, share data among missions and centers seamlessly, leverage tools and technology across the agency, and ensure mission success through knowledge and influence.
Read More
NASA’s Continued Use of PJVS for Calibrations Ensures Peak Accuracy
March 19, 2021
2-minute read
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.
Read More
Langley Unveils NDE Simulation and Modeling Tools
March 19, 2021
1-minute read
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.
Read More
ODQN: First Issue of 2021 Now Available
March 15, 2021
1-minute read
The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. See the latest updates as of February 2021.
Read More
Nadcap Response to COVID-19
March 11, 2021
2-minute read
The Nadcap Management Council and the Performance Review Institute updated their response to the COVID-19 pandemic to include Risk Assessment Surveys and Virtual Verification Audits. This update follows Nadcap’s initial response in the spring of 2020.
Read More
Additional Extension for Workmanship Standards Credentials
March 10, 2021
3-minute read
In light of the logistical and safety constraints put upon NASA’s suppliers and training facilities due to COVID-19, NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance released its second memo, which endorses, with caveats, the extension of training credential validity periods for the majority of operators and inspectors employed by organizations who seek to comply with NASA Workmanship Standards for the assembly and Quality Assurance of NASA hardware. This extension is only applicable to individuals whose training credentials would have expired on or after Feb. 15, 2020.
Read More
Mars Perseverance Rover Set to Land on the Red Planet Feb. 18
February 16, 2021
2-minute read
The Mars 2020 mission, including the Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter, will land on Mars on February 18, 2021. A first on a Mars mission, the Sample Caching System included on Perseverance will collect and store short cores of Martian rocks and soils destined for future return to Earth and study with advanced instrumentation. The system is complex, including a drill for sample collection and tubes to seal and store the collected samples until a future mission can retrieve them.
Read More
Managing Vegetation for Explosives Safety
February 08, 2021
5-minute read
Vegetation control is a necessary and effective tool to minimize the risk of fire propagation into explosives storage magazines, which could lead to dangerous and costly accidents. Generally, vegetation around explosives storage sites is strictly controlled. The Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Transportation Security Administration all have specific regulations to control the potential damage to explosives storage magazines from a nearby fire. Similarly, NASA has NASA-STD-8719.12, Safety Standard for Explosives, Propellants, and Pyrotechnics section 5.4 Vegetation Control, which outlines the basic agency requirements for managing vegetation. However, how each center implements these controls varies to accommodate the centers’ environments and needs.
Read More