NASA Risk Manager Offers Lecture on Space Exploration April 27

After nearly 40 years, NASA has a new vision for exploration: taking us back to the moon and on to Mars. America has again committed itself to exploring the stars. In order to succeed and to accomplish a sustained presence on the Moon and Mars, NASA and its astronauts will have to find ways to live off the land.

Learn how at “Human Exploration of Space: Past, Present, and Future” a presentation by Michael Lutomski, NASA Johnson Space Center ISS Risk Manager, Monday, April 27 in the Western Hemispheric Trade Center Fernando A. Salinas Lecture Room (WHTC 111) at 6:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

It is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics at TAMIU and the IEEE Corpus Christi Section (IEEE-CC). It is funded by IEEE-CC and a grant from the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC).

During the presentation, Lutomski will discuss past and present activities in human spaceflight and how these activities are setting the way and building necessary means for exploration.

Pizza and refreshments will be provided from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The presentation will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m.

If interested in attending, RSVP by Thursday, April 23 to Juanita Villarreal at 326.2440 or e-mail sjv@tamiu.edu.

Lutomski has spent over 20 years working on Manned Spaceflight at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, working in various positions within Operations, Engineering and the International Space Station Program Office. He spent two years working in NASA’s International Space Station’s Moscow Office. He also worked for the Mission Control Center, supporting early ISS Operations development outside of Moscow, in Korolev, Russia during the Shuttle/Mir program, known as “Phase I” of the International Space Station.

He is currently the Risk Manager of the International Space Station (ISS) Program. As Risk Manager, he is responsible for defining and implementing the Risk Management process across the organizations and participants of the ISS Program, assisting management in making sound risk-informed decisions. Lutomski manages a Continuous Risk Management (CRM) process for the ISS Program that offers a systemic method for identifying, tracking, and controlling technical, cost, schedule and safety risks that affect program objectives.

As Risk Manager, he is responsible for building and maintaining a Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) model of the ISS used by management to quantify and compare relative risks to the crew and vehicle associated with designing, building, and operating the ISS with international partners spanning 16 countries.

For more information, please contact Dr. Ray Bachnak, professor and department chair, at 326.2408 or e-mail rbachnak@tamiu.edu.

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