Assignment Detail

Assignment ID: FG133233016

Discussion:

1. Should the Morton-Thiokol engineers have blown the whistle and announced to the press that NASA management was endangering the lives of the crew members and risking the destruction of the space shuttle?

2. No launch is completely safe; space travel is inherently risky. The astronauts accepted the risk when they volunteered for the job. Should they have been informed that the risks were higher for this particular launch?

3. Christa MacAuliffe (the high school teacher) was selected for this program and given a few week of training compared to several months of training the other astronauts had to go through. Some say she was selected as a PR (public relation) stunt by NASA as the “first teacher” in space. Should she have been selected for this mission?

4. Is it unfair to place the blame on NASA engineers? After all, every launch has risks and someone has to make the decisions to launch. Should the engineers be faulted for developing an inferior design?

5. Should an escape mechanism be installed on space shuttle even though it imposes a severe weight penalty and reduces the shuttle payload capacity?

6. What do you see as a priority in your engineering professional responsibility in relation to both being loyal to management and protecting the publicw elfare?