Taking Human Factors to the "Far Side" of the Moon with Dr. Ajay P Kothari

Taking Human Factors to the Far Side of the Moon
Featuring: Dr. Ajay P Kothari, President & CEO of Astrox Corporation and NASA Project Lead

“But the Dark Side of the Moon sounds better…”

“Yes,” he said “but we don’t say that, we say far side. Otherwise all the scientists and people at NASA will think you don’t know or that I didn’t tell you...”

“Right,” I said, “So ok, we’ll go with Far Side”

Whether you call it the “Dark Side” or the “Far Side” of the Moon, doesn’t matter when it comes to human error or preventing human error. Although, as Ajay points out: it doesn’t hurt so much if you trip and fall on the moon.

However, the problems human factors can cause in terms of performance and critical errors could also be much more serious on the Moon or Mars. Typically, redundancy or multiple layers of redundancy have been the “go-to” strategy for preventing failure. But with people, multiple layers of redundancy beget more layers or an increased level of complacency.

At what point does the redundancy become counterproductive? And, how does the “race for space” appetite of private enterprise mix with the mission statement of “zero failures”?

These are some of the questions Larry and Ajay discuss, including the questions from the live audience, on this episode of Larry Wilson Live.