[Author]
1. Introduction
The engineers are also called as the creator of the new technology, certainly engineers focuses to create a product based on the user needs. The engineers try to satisfy the user. There are some engineering excellent creations like ATM machine, Vehicle, Mobile phones etc, which are still used by more users. The first duty of the engineers while designing a product is considering safety to the public while using their product. The knowledgeable engineer always consider the safeness of the product while he or she is designing the equipment, but there are some engineering failure in designing that even caused loss of life. This paper will explains the reader how safety is important while designing the engineering product. When things go wrong the safety should be considered first than the money on the designed product.
2. Safety and Design
Each engineering design has the acceptance level for safety, in which engineers should try to maintain their design within the acceptance level [1]. The engineers in safety are to manage the risk and maintain the acceptance level. Engineering in safety attempts to reduce the frequency in failure, and if the failure occurs the consequences should not be life threatening, Example the civil engineers are responsible for designing bridges; the bridges should be carefully designed with the low amount of risk level, because it carries the load involving human life [1]. Once the failure in the engineering design is identified it can be mitigated by adding extra equipment to the system [2]. The engineers have to perform their professional functions in engineering. The engineering professionals should have education, training and experience in common body of knowledge [2]. The engineers should have a capability of identifying faulted design and to prevent accident first from the faulted design than the rectifying fault.
3. Challenger Space Shuttle and Engineering Failure
The space shuttle challenger (OV 099) was the NASA’S space shuttle orbiter to be put in to operation. The shuttle was launched on Jan 28 1986, but 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission the space shuttle crashed, resulting in the death of 7 crew members [3]. The space craft disintegrated over an Atlantic ocean, the accident was due to the O ring failure in the right solid rocket booster (SRB) during lift off. The O ring failure caused a break in the SRB joint it sealed and releases the pressurized hot gases in the outside environment on the external fuel tank. The other equipments are recovered from the ocean [3]. The investigation on the accident was handed over to the Rogers commission. The Rogers commission found that the NASA’S organizational culture and poor decision making are the key contributing factors for the accident [4]. The NASA managers know that the contractor Morton Thiokol’s design in the O ring contains flaw since 1977, but they failed to properly address the failure. The NASA manager team just ignored the engineers warning before the launch. The engineering design failure in the O ring and failure in preventing the launch causes the accident and which takes the life of 7 crew members [4]. Roger Boisjoly a well known mechanical engineer warned the design failure of O ring before the shuttle launch and its crew.
4. Conclusion
The 7 crew died in the launch, they may not be an engineer. The engineer’s small fault in the O ring seal releases the hot gases in to the fuel tank and crashed the whole shuttle. The engineering fault taken the life of 7 members and the problem was not properly addressed by the NASA managing professionals. The overall carelessness results in the accident. The challenger space shuttle engineering fault is the best example for the engineers, which teaches all engineers in the world about the importance of safety in the engineering design [5].
References
[1] Wikipedia, 2009, Safety Engineering,Web. 8 Nov 2013. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_engineering. 28 Dec 2013
[2] Wikipedia, 2009, Safety engineers,Web. 8 Nov 2013. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_engineer. 28 Dec 2013
[3] Engineering Failure, 2011,Challenger.Web. Available at: http://engineeringfailures.org/?p=85. 28 Dec 2013.
[4] Wikipedia, 2009, Roger Boisholy,Web. 8 Nov 2013. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly. 28 Dec 2013
[5] Failure as design criteria, 2011, Space Shuttle Challenger. Available at: http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/interactive_resources/tutorials/failurecases/hs1.html. 28 Dec 2013
[6] Ethics Wiki, 2011, Space shuttle challenger disaster. Available at: http://ethics.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_Disaster. 28 Dec 2013.
[7] NASA, 1999, Challenger Space Shuttle, Available at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/researchernews/rn_Colloquium1012.html 28 Dec 2013
