‘Confidential’ Internal Report Slams NASA Life Science Research

‘Confidential’ Internal Report Slams NASA Life Science Research
Keith Cowing, NASA Watch -- STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Monday, October 20, 2003
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10726
Internal Report Paints Bleak Picture of Human Life Science Research at NASA
Editor's note: the following document was generated in 2003 for internal use
at NASA Johnson Space Center.
You can download the entire 100 page report (with appendices, charts, etc.)
here (5.6 MB PDF).
The first portion of the document describes how the Space and Life Sciences
Division at NASA JSC is supposed to conduct business. The second part of
this report (excerpts below) opens by saying "Despite the apparent order of
the process described above, the reality of the current program tells a more
chaotic story."
The third section of this report "Recommendations" ends with "The issue is
clear. Voodoo science is not worth the cost. The limb of the fault tree Life
Sciences is perched upon is perilously close to breaking."
The last portion of this report contains a detailed statistical analysis of
JSC life science research.
None of the problems described in this document arose overnight. Indeed,
they are the result of decades of bad decisions - both at JSC as well as at
NASA HQ. These problems are also the result of a failure on the part of
advisory committees - both those sponsored by NASA as well as those
chartered external to the agency.
Having been deeply involved myself in the advisory, peer review, and payload
integration aspects of NASA's life sciences programs in the 1980s and 1990s,
I saw much of this with my own eyes. It hasn't gotten any better.
NASA may soon be handed a new mandate for humans to do new things in space.
Unless NASA gets its life sciences research house in order, NASA will not be
able to respond to that mandate.