National Aeronautics and Space Administration Academy Sharing Knowledge The NASA Source for Project Management and Engineering Excellence | APPEL FALL | 2008 Special Issue NASA’s 50th Imagecourtesy the Smithsonianof Center for Folklife and Heritage Cultural ON THE COVER This image was used during the 42nd Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2008 to showcase NASA’s history and continuing exploration. Represented are some of NASA’s discoveries and pursuits in planetary and lunar exploration. Earth’s moon appears behind an astronaut helmet on the left and Mars appears on the right, followed by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune cascading toward the background. Between them is the Ares I crew launch vehicle, currently being developed as part of the Constellation program and NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration. ASK MAGAZINE | 1 Contents 13 42 57 DEPARTMENTS STORIES 3 9 31 In This Issue Early Lunar Missions: A Memoir NASA’s First Scientist-Astronauts BY DON COHEN BY J.D. BURKE A JPL project manager in the BY JOE KERWIN NASA’s first physician- early sixties, Burke recalls the space race astronaut describes the Skylab experiments 70 with the Soviets. that studied the effects of weightlessness. The Knowledge Notebook BY LAURENCE PRUSAK 13 60 The Apollo Era: Working at Marshall in Leadership, Teamwork, and Focus: 72 the Sixties Viking’s Landing on Mars ASK Interactive BY GLENN A. ROBINSON, JR. A discussion of BY KERRY EllIS Managerial skill and Wernher von Braun’s management style and innovation made Viking’s technical the power of learning by doing. achievement possible. SPECIAL FEATURES 18 65 25 Teaching Geology to Apollo Astronauts Lessons from Shuttle Development Some NASA Moments BY GARY LOFGREN To prepare for their work BY JIM OdOM The transition from Apollo to Striking episodes in the careers of on the moon, Apollo astronauts did many Space Shuttle offers lessons for today’s NASA practitioners. field exercises and built a common language transition to Constellation. 42 with geologists. A Half Century of NASA Photos BY GEORGE MICHAEL (MIKE) GENTRY Some of the most striking images from NASA’s first fifty years. INSIGHTS 5 34 47 Lessons from the Past: How NASA’s Using the Moon to Learn About NASA and the Future of Knowledge Early Culture Informs Current Challenges Living on Mars BY LAURENCE PRUSAK AND DON COHEN BY HOWARD E. MCCURDY The technical BY LAURENCE R. YOUNG Young argues that Trust, strong personal networks, and capability, management expertise, and the planned lunar outpost needs a medical respect for local expertise characterize close contractor relationships behind the laboratory. organizations that use knowledge effectively. moon landings are essential to NASA’s future success. 36 52 Space Science: Forty-Five Years Success, Failure, and NASA Culture 22 of Thinking and Tinkering BY DR. STEPHEN B. JOHNSON The root causes A Brief History of Project Management BY NOEL HINNERS Making the most of scarce of failure are often cultural, not technical. Development at NASA resources and collaboration between scientists BY Ed HOFFMAN Effective training, and engineers are key to continuing NASA’s 57 frameworks, and forums must reflect the impressive history of scientific discovery. The Societal Impact of Space Flight needs and experience of practitioners. BY STEVEN J. DICK The NASA historian looks 39 at studies of the economic, political, and 29 Discovery-Driven Science social impact of the space program. Shaping the Space Age: The BY DR. JAMES B. GARVIN The chief scientist International Geophysical Year at Goddard Space Flight Center discusses 68 BY MATTHEW KOHUT The first U.S. satellite, revolutionary findings in space science. NASA’s Inventions and Contributions Explorer 1, made one the most important Board: A Historical Perspective discoveries of the IGY. BY CAROL ANNE DUNN Thanks to ICB awards, many NASA innovations find new uses outside the space program. Issue No. 32 Staff APPEL Director and PUBlisher Dr. Edward Hoffman [email protected] Editor-IN-Chief Laurence Prusak [email protected] Managing Editor The Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL) and ASK Don Cohen Magazinee help NASA managers and project teams accomplish today’s missions and [email protected] meet tomorrow’s challenges by sponsoring knowledge-sharing events and publications, providing performance enhancement services and tools, supporting career development Editor programs, and creating opportunities for project management and engineering Kerry Ellis collaboration with universities, professional associations, industry partners, and other [email protected] government agencies. contriButing Editor ASK Magazine grew out of the Academy and its Knowledge Sharing Initiative, designed Matt Kohut for program/project managers and engineers to share expertise and lessons learned [email protected] with fellow practitioners across the Agency. Reflecting the Academy’s responsibility for project management and engineering development and the challenges of NASA’s new Senior KnoWledge Sharing Consultant mission, ASK includes articles about meeting the technical and managerial demands Jon Boyle of complex projects, as well as insights into organizational knowledge, learning, [email protected] collaboration, performance measurement and evaluation, and scheduling. We at APPEL Knowledge Sharing believe that stories recounting the real-life experiences KnoWledge Sharing AnalYsts of practitioners communicate important practical wisdom and best practices that Ben Bruneau readers can apply to their own projects and environments. By telling their stories, [email protected] NASA managers, scientists, and engineers share valuable experience-based knowledge and foster a community of reflective practitioners. The stories that appear in ASK Katherine Thomas [email protected] are written by the “best of the best” project managers and engineers, primarily from NASA, but also from other government agencies, academia, and industry. Who better APPEL program Manager than a project manager or engineer to help a colleague address a critical issue on a Yvonne Massaquoi project? Big projects, small projects—they’re all here in ASK. [email protected] You can help ASK provide the stories you need and want by letting our editors know Design what you think about what you read here and by sharing your own stories. To submit Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group, Inc. stories or ask questions about editorial policy, contact Don Cohen, Managing Editor, www.hzdg.com [email protected], 781-860-5270. Printing Specialist For inquiries about APPEL Knowledge Sharing programs and products, please contact Hanta Ralay Katherine Thomas, ASRC Management Services, 6303 Ivy Lane, Suite 130, Greenbelt, [email protected] MD 20770; [email protected]; 301-793-9973. Printing To subscribe to ASK, please send your full name and preferred mailing address GraphTec (including mail stop, if applicable) to [email protected]. ASK MAGAZINE | 3 In This Issue In his “Knowledge Notebook” piece, Laurence Prusak Burke’s description of competition with the Russians in the notes that the past experiences of organizations influence late fifties and early sixties and Jim Odom’s “Lessons from how they behave now and how they will behave in the Shuttle Development” are among the articles that show how future. The truth of this is complex. It means that what powerfully politics affect budgets, schedules, and even the an organization learns from its successes and failures— goals of missions. In the Apollo era, the Cold War space both technical knowledge and knowledge about how to race meant that NASA programs were very well-funded organize work—can be put to use, past accomplishments but under tremendous schedule pressure. After the United serving as the foundation for future ones. It also means States won that race, financial support weakened, leading that unproductive old habits and beliefs tend to persist to changes in the shuttle design and the successes and even when the damage they do is recognized. As Stephen failures of “faster, better, cheaper.” Among their other skills, Johnson suggests in “Success, Failure, and NASA Culture,” successful program and project managers need the ability elements of organizational culture are often the root cause to read the political situation, as well as the determination of failures, but culture is hard to understand and change. and flexibility to find new ways to achieve their goals when Still, Prusak is right that understanding the past is external factors threaten their plans. essential preparation for the future. This issue of ASK, which The contribution of good management to project success commemorates NASA’s fiftieth anniversary, is one attempt is additional proof that creating technological marvels is not among many to look at and learn from the space agency’s just a technical challenge. Johnson points to the essential first half century. Some of what you will find here is pure role of project management and systems management celebration. That is appropriate, because great achievements expertise in NASA’s early achievements. In “Lessons from should be celebrated and because the joy of achievement is the Past,” Howard McCurdy attributes the Agency’s success one of NASA’s essential and defining strengths. Some of the in landing men on the moon to technical expertise, excellent articles here take a hard, analytical look at what the Agency management techniques, and effective relationships with has been as