Bradley T. Jones & Edward S. Calder

NASA Engineer & MIT Consultant

Gravity Probe B: A Management Study

As NASA continues to evolve from an engineering to a management organization, it will need to increasingly rely on external sources for new ideas and technical expertise, one being the nation’s universities. In order to optimally leverage this potent resource, NASA will need to gain a comprehensive understanding of how it currently interacts with universities and also ways to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of such collaborations.

This talk summarizes a study performed by two former GP-B engineers, Brad Jones and Ned Calder, which focuses on the management interactions of Gravity Probe B (GP-B), one of NASA’s longest running missions and one of the first programs for which a university was awarded the prime contract. The complexity of its management structure offered a unique opportunity to examine the impact and effectiveness of having a university prime contractor on a large-scale NASA program. The talk, consisting of information gathered from over 40 interviews with representatives from the entities involved in the development and operation of GP‑B, centers on the lessons learned from the management experience and recommends improvements for future NASA-University collaborations. Additionally, it extracts a set of best practices for managing such a relationship.

This talk was recently given at NASA Headquarters and is scheduled to become a case study in NASA’s program management training regime.

Brad Jones : B.S. in Civil Engineering, Texas A&M (1999); Master’s of Engineering in Management & Systems Engineering, Cornell University (2002). He spent 3-1/2 years on GP-B as Launch Team Lead and a Flight Director. He is currently an engineer at NASA Johnson Space Center. Ned Calder: B.S. in Physics, Northwestern University (2001); Master’s of Science in Technology & Policy, MIT (2006). He spent 4 years on the GP-B Cryogenics Team and was Cryogenics Operations Lead at the launch site. He is currently a consultant, focusing on organizational behavior, management and emerging technologies.

APPLIED PHYSICS LECTURE HALL 200 (AP 200)

(316 Via Pueblo Way entry between Via Ortega and Via Palou)

Friday, July 14, 2006 1:30 – 3:00 pm

Light refreshments available at 1:30 pm; presentation begins at 1:45. Open to all.

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Previous HEPL Seminars 2004-2006:

Ned Wright
Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
What's New in Cosmology?
Thursday 9 March 2006

Peter Michelson
Stanford University
GLAST: The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Mission
Seminar and Tour
Thursday 16 Feb 2006

Robert L. Byer
Stanford University
"Acceleration of Electrons with Visible Light"
Wednesday 1 Feb 2006

Emeline Guiu
Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA)
" The MICROSCOPE Mission and In-Flight Calibration"
Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005

Nicholas White
Chief, Laboratory for High Astrophysics NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
“The NASA Beyond Einstein Program”
Wednesday, 5 Oct 2005

Ulrich Schreiber, Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, TU-München
“High Precision Sagnac Interferometry for Applications in Geoscience ”
Thursday, September 8, 2005

Christopher D. Bass, Indiana University / IUCF, “Measurement of the Parity-Odd Neutron Spin Rotation in Liquid-⁴He”
Monday, August 22, 2005

Anne Kinney, Director, Universe Division in the Science Mission Directorate, NASA, "Blue Planets, Black Holes"
Wednesday, 20 July 2005

Dr William Tobin, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Canterbury,New Zealand "Foucault's Gyroscope of 1852"
Friday, 8 April 2005

Rex Geveden, NASA Chief Engineer, Independent Technical Authority
Thursday, 7 April 2005

Shooting the Moon: Probing Fundamental Gravity in the Solar System
Tom Murphy, UC San Diego 3 March 2005

The GRACE Mission: Status and Science Results John Ries, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, 14 February 2005.

Hubble Robotic Servicing - Recent Engineering Development, Bill Reeve
Civil Space Director of Advanced Science Programs, Lockheed Martin, 26 January 2005.

Interferometry for LISA, Daniel Shaddock, PhD, Interferometry Metrology and Optics Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 17 November 2004.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Steve Kahn, Deputy Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 27 October 2004.

HEPL-KIPAC Showcase. 29 September 2004. Agenda