Challenger Disaster Essay

Right now self-driving cars and trucks are hitting the road and will soon be available to the general market . Major companies like Google, Tesla, Uber and Delphi are leading in autonomous cars industry. In the past few years, these companies have made great strides improving this technology. Addressing the concerns for this technology must be concluded before it reaches the general public. Given the current state of automobiles that don’t need drivers the American consumer needs to be mindful that moral decisions this technology is handling puts them at risk due to the fact that this is emerging technology, laws are being made that will shape this technology, and who is choosing who lives and who dies.

The article includes background information on the event as well as many quotes from people who followed the Challenger mission and remember the tragedy. Many of the quotes express the viewer’s shock at the disaster while others convey a sense of loss. The article also touches on the complacency of NASA leading up to the disaster and refers to a quote which states that “one of the biggest outcomes from the tragedy was the recommendation that NASA needed a stronger safety organization.”

Mission STS-107, left Earth for the last time on January 16, 2003. The seven-member crew that included: Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon never safely returned. I am writing you to voice my concerns over systematic organizational problems within NASA which led to this catastrophe. The way NASA is structured, as well as its culture, will continue to create a hazardous safety work environment until the issues are addressed. I have a few recommendations below that may assist you in your endeavors to revamp NASA’s organizational structure and culture.

Weather can play an enormous role in historical events that are remembered decades, and even centuries, after they happen. It can turn small events that would go unnoticed in history to events that are remembered as some of the most important in world history. Until relatively recently, when the Weather Bureau was formed in 1870, we lacked the capability to forecast the weather and prevent incidents like these (Robbins). Even though weather reporting from that moment on would become widespread across the country, it would not be enough to prevent disasters such as the Challenger disaster that rocked the country on a chilly day in 1986.

Is is worth risking lives to explore the unknown during high risk missions? From 1967 to 2003, NASA had 3 disasters, resulting in the death of 17 people (one being a citizen). When confronted with the restraints that space programs have when studying certain topics in space, safety should be a number one priority. It is ethically wrong to send astronauts into space, without informing them of the risks of their mission. NASA should also weigh the risks of the mission with the anticipated outcome to decide if it ethically acceptable to go through the mission at all.

During the year of 1986, on January the twenty sixth, a horrific shock was felt around the country. After Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, Americans felt a great sense of national pride and invincibility but many Americans learned on that fateful day that nobody is invincible; one of the worst catastrophes of the United States space program occurred on that day. About forty five seconds after liftoff, Americans witnessed the destruction of the breathtaking challenger space shuttle. Even though the disaster caused nationwide sadness, the reasons for its failure are clear. Named after the British ship that sailed across the Atlantic hundreds of years, could carry more than two thousand pounds the challenger was truly a glorious achievement.

On the cold morning of January 28th, 1986, The Space Shuttle Challenger was launched. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the space shuttle broke apart, causing the seven deaths of its crew members. Roger Boisjoly, a mechanical engineer for Thiokol brought to NASA’s attention about a failing O-ring safety concern in the shuttles rocket booster. After being ignored by NASA Boisjoly tried to bring the issue of the O-ring to people higher up in his company, all of the people ignored Boisjoly in his attempts to get the issue resolved. Thirteen hours before the launch of the shuttle, Boisjoly strongly urged not to launch the shuttle, all attempts failed. After the disaster took place Boisjoly told the press exactly why the shuttle failed to

On an unusually cool Florida morning in January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 50,000 feet above ground just moments after liftoff killing seven crew members onboard (Palmer, Dunford, and Akin, 2009). A presidential commission, dubbed “the Rogers Commission” (hereafter, the Commission) after former Secretary of State William Rogers, was appointed to investigate the cause of the disaster. Although mechanical failure of an O-ring seal in one of the rocket boosters was identified as the physical cause, the investigation revealed something much more disheartening; organizational deficiencies at NASA had allowed potential safety hazards to be disregarded. The disastrous consequences of NASA’s organizational failure prompted calls

The 1980s were a devastating and thrilling time in history. Michael Jordan influenced this decade and many after. The Challenger explosion changed space travel forever. These historical events affect society today, and will continue to do so throughout history.

In just 34 seconds, the lives of 36 people were lost on May 6, 1937. The airship had over 97 seven people aboard the when it burst into a ball of flames(The). Many people have theories as to why the airship went down. Some say two of the four engines failed to maintain power. Others argue back that a hydrogen leak was the culprit.(Found)

“On January 28, 1986 the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all 7 astronauts on board. The investigation showed aerodynamics forces broke the shuttle apart, after a structural failure that began with a specific gasket that failed at the very liftoff. The entire event was broadcast live on TV” (Engineering Disasters, 2017, p. 1). This disaster occurred after a gasket failure in an attempt to rush a launch date by the administration. Refusing the request of an administration figure due to a danger is one of the most difficult situations an engineer can be placed in because it can jeopardize their job and as a result, their family is affected. Well it is one of the hardest situations it is one of the most important to speak up and make sure your option is not only heard but is documented as well because if it isn’t then it shall be your engineering license on the line and without that and a bad reputation your career life is pretty much

Currently one of the main topics of discussion in the AI community is self driving cars. Self driving cars would be much safer than manually operated cars and with a lot of work they could even be developed to form a network across the country they are in so that they can “talk” to each other. This would greatly reduce the amount of deaths resulting from cars. However self driving cars have also raised plenty of issues such as the fact they could put many professional drivers out of work. Furthermore there are many moral issues raised by automated cars, the trolley problem, a problem involving choosing between killing one or more persons as opposed to another group/person, is a very popular theory right now as self driving cars would have to

The NASW Code of Ethics maybe considered the most ambitious set of ethical guidelines in social work history. Ethical issues have always been a concern of the professional social worker. As early as 1919 there were attempts to draft professional codes of ethics (Reamer, 1998). There have been several social work organizations since, that have attempted to draft ethical codes, such as the American Association for Organizing Family Social Work and several chapters of the American Association of Social Workers. In 1960 NASW adopted its first code of ethics, five years after the association was formed. The first code consisted of only 14 proclamations, with another added in 1957. In 1979 a new code was adopted, this code was far more

In addition, after the Challenger shuttle disaster, the Presidential Commission had recommended some solutions to solve and improve the quality, such as hiring experts and establishment of a department to monitor the quality. Also the organizational culture is an issue that leads the disaster. Employee apprehension causes people in NASA management resist to change. Another possible reason analyzed by Jefferson (2002) is government funded firm, which applied quality management the National Health Service (NHS). He reports the failure and attributes it to the NHS culture of “cure, treat and save life”. It indicates that the treatment needs not to be a quality

Ultimately the fault lies with every person who was a part of the project, except Roger Boisjoly, 3 of his colleagues, and the manager who refused to sign the ok to launch. According to a broadcast by NPR in 1986, Boisjoly’s and his colleague's concerns were escalated to top management. They explained their worries and gave their evidence to the Vice President of Morton Thiokol, Robert Lund. This was then escalated to another meeting with more engineers and managers, which resulted in the conclusion that launching could be catastrophic