The Ethics Of The United States

There are many examples of ethical decisions throughout American history yet few have had a more profound impact on shaping our country then the paths chosen by the American Revolutionaries. Let’s face it, had it not been for their actions our country would probably look much different today. If it were not for the foresight of our founding fathers, men like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, or Thomas Paine (1776), who authored arguably the most compelling piece of political propaganda the world had seen to date, Common Sense. After reading Paine’s work I believe that many of the ideals and philosophies are still relevant in modern society, so much so that I was drawn into the relevance and found myself pondering the moral palaver which

With seven ‒ novice as well as seasoned ‒ astronauts on board, they were going to space to deploy a satellite “into orbit to observe Halley’s comet”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). The first affirmation of a problem was gray smoke, this was detected 678 seconds into flight. Shortly after the smoke there was a small flame and “at 73 seconds, the Challenger reached an altitude of 46,000 feet and exploded”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). That evening, President Ronald Reagan said: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). Five months later, in June 1986, it was conjectured “that a fuel leak through faulty rubber O-rings that sealed joint sections of the rocket booster caused the accident”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident”

Many Americans have the luxury of purchasing new electronics almost every year. Something that is ignored, since it has become so natural, is exactly how their little devices had come to their lives and what happens when it is thrown away. In a more perfect world, the production of electronics would that of an ethical process, but it is unfortunately not that case. It all starts with the harvesting of raw materials.

The Challenger Disaster was one of the biggest events of the 1980’s. It symbolized that space travel is a challenging endeavor which bears it’s own set of risks, especially when the entirety of the shuttle program was plagued with issues up until the Challenger incident. Initially, America put a ton of resources into the space program in order to achieve the goal of winning the Space Race. Once that goal was achieved, America’s space program was scaled down to a fraction of the previous budget (space.com article). Out of the small budget, the shuttle program came into existence. During it’s conception, various bedget cuts and

What is are EXPORT AND IMPORT trades for this country (or a number of trades)?

In addition to controversial bidding practices the solid rocket booster had a design flaw that was known to be an issue for years before the Challenger’s final flight took place. The First flight using the booster was in 1980. (Hunley 275) Since the boosters are recovered after every mission, by 1981 NASA could tell that the booster’s segment seals were already showing signs of wear. (Petroski 271) They were not parts that were designed to wear out. (Petroski 271) Evidently NASA knew that there was a seal problem with the boosters and continued using them for the next five years until an accident occurred. Another matter entirely is that the booster seals made to flex and seal properly in cold temperatures. (Petroski 271) At the hearings during the presidential commission’s

NASA’s space shuttle orbiter Challenger was an engineering failure that shocked the US when it blew up 73 seconds into its flight after its launch from Florida in 1986, killing all seven of its crew. The cause of the failure was that the shuttle’s O-ring seal in the right rocket booster failed while at liftoff, allowing pressurized gas from the rocket to reach the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tanks, causing structural failure and aerodynamic forces to tear it apart. The O-ring wasn’t designed to operate under the very cold conditions during the launch.

On the icy morning of January 28, 1986, seven brave people boarded the Challenger space shuttle. All of America sat around their televisions watching and waiting for the space shuttle to finally lift off. One of the seven people aboard this shuttle was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher in the Teachers in Space program and would have been the first civilian to go into space. Her students were invited to come to NASA and watch. The engines roar sounded loudly and the shuttle finally left the ground. It was an illuminating sight to see, until a flame started at the base of the shuttle. The space shuttle caught on fire what seemed like instantly, and exploded within seconds. Due to this tragedy, the NASA space program has made several improvements to prevent tragedies like this one from ever happening again (Carreau). NASA may have made improvements, but the horrifying memory of this disaster will be embedded in the minds of the people of America and Christa 's class for the rest of their lives.

There was a failure during the launch of the space shuttle challenger with one of the 0-rings on the solid-propellant boosters. It had become brittle by the cold weather and failed. This catastrophe led to an explosion shortly after liftoff. Engineers who had designed the 0-rings had apprehensions about launching under these extreme cold conditions. The engineers recommended that the launch be postponed, but they were overridden by their management. The management team did not believe that there were enough statistics to support a postponement of the launch. The shuttle was launched, causing the infamous accident.

The Space Shuttle Challenger occured in the first moment of launch on a very cold day in 1986. According to Encyclopedia of science,technology and ethics,“The dynamics of the launch causes the joint betwwen SRB segmnets to flex and to prevent leaks the O-rings must bere-silent enough to follow this flexure and maintian their seal but due to the cold weather the O-rings were too stiff to follow the joint flexure.”

The initial threat to the ability of NASA to sustain the dramatic changes in the wake of the Challenger disaster started well before the lives of the astronauts were lost. The lack of centralization of management and the fact that different aspects of the organization had locations ranging from D.C. to Florida allowed for no one to really accept and own up to the fact that they were at fault. No one group or person took responsibility, so it was cast upon the entire NASA organization and no one took it upon themselves to make sure that a disaster of this caliber would ever happen again.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster happened on February 1st, 2003, and was the second and final lost Space Shuttle for NASA. Unlike the other case studies, I do not think that there was as much external disaster planning with the Columbia. In my research it seems that NASA as long been an advocate for the traditional approach to disaster management. Taking in to account the secret classification that surrounds much of what happens, and the inner workings of a government organization such as NASA, we should not be surprised of their approach to disasters.

Ethical issues can be many different situations, so you need to govern yourself based on the morals of the situation. Understanding the situation fully, will allow you to realize the consequences of your actions. Each person ethical issue can be different based on the back ground, cultural, values and beliefs. Someone raised Nigeria will have different take on ethical issues then someone in the United States because of their values and beliefs. This paper will be a case study that examines a mother, daughter and son-in-law of ten years who has illegitimate child that the daughter does not know about and its ethical views.

By the time the nation moved into the 1980’s, the space shuttle was developed and ready to be launched by early 1981. However, the cost of the shuttle program was significantly higher than the agency anticipated. This fact, along with culture that NASA retained lent itself to breakdowns in communication and safety procedures which were its hallmark during the Apollo era. Plainly stated, the organization realigned itself in a manner that “put the Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance offices under the supervision of the very organizations and activities whose efforts they are to check” (Rogers Commission, Chapter 7, 1986). The presence of multiple contractors working independently made it nearly impossible to align information that could be analyzed. These failures in communication and structure were culminated in the tragedy of the Challenger in 1986. According to the Commission (1986), further contributing to the tragedy was “as flight rate increased, the (Marshall) safety, reliability and

“Ethics is the manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of right or wrong” (Ghillyer). And government ethics is “the application of ethical rules to government”