NASA's Experience in Improving the Microgravity Flight Development Process Utilizing the Language Processing Method

Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and in particular, the Physical Sciences Division (PSD) (formally known as the Microgravity Science and Applications Division) in NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, and the Microgravity Research Program Office in Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville AL, are responsible for managing the selection, development, and conduct of scientific investigations in which the minimization of the gravity force is necessary for the successful conduct of the experiment.

A major problem faced by the Physical Sciences Program (PSP) in the early 1990s was that it normally took approximately 7 years from acceptance of an experiment proposal to the conduct of the flight experiment. This was the major subject for a PSP Planning Conference, which was held in 1992 and which utilized a Language Processing (LP)™ Method (the LP Method is a trademark for the Center for Quality of Management, Inc.) to gain solutions to the issue. This represented the first time that NASA had used such a rigorous application of this type of methodology to the solution of a major problem such as this.

Seven years later, in 1999, the PSD conducted a study to determine the effects of the changes that were made as a result of the conference. This paper describes the findings of that study; the key factors involved in the PSD change process, and also examines the effect that the LP Methodology had on the success of the conference and the resulting changes.

Keywords:

• NASA
• LP method

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge Mr. Robert C. Rhome PE, past Director of the Microgravity Science and Applications Division of NASA at the time of the 1992 Planning Conference. His total support of this activity was absolutely essential for its successful accomplishment.

The authors also wish to acknowledge Dr. Eugene Trinh, Director of the Physical Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters and Mrs. Robin Henderson, Director of the Microgravity Research Program Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center for their support in the final study in order to determine the effects of the changes that were made as a result of the 1992 Planning Conference.

The authors also wish to express their sincere appreciation to Dr. Shoji Shiba for his stimulating discussion and insightful ideas which significantly shaped and improved the present paper. One of the authors, Dr. Mark Lee would like to personally thank Dr. Shiba for the opportunity to learn and apply the LP Method.