Introduction
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the dependence of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America. As a government agency, the NASA depends on a budget that the Congress of the United States assigns every year according to the priorities in investigation agreed between the Agency and the Government.
There is an imminent risk for the NASA and all its subsidiaries, as the JPL (Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2016), that is the risk of failure. In the case of comparison with any firm or organization, as a corporation, the failure is very common, but it is not transcendental than a failure for the NASA. A failure of a corporation means a change in the head of the unit of the company, a change in the original plan and the company backs to the market quickly. In the case of a failure of the NASA, a failure, as an explosion of a shuttle or a dead astronaut are the main risks for the organization that put in risk the future missions of NASA and the flow of money for the annual budget.
The NASA has several stakeholders where each has an important role in the missions of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA operations. The first stakeholder is the government of the United States of America, which by the Congress assigns the annual budget to finance all the operations and investments in new aircraft, shuttles, and rockets. The NASA had its highest budget (in constant dollars) in 1966 with a nominal value of 5,933 million dollars (43,554 million dollars of 2014) in the career to reach the moon. The second group of stakeholders is the providers of the NASA that receive a double benefit: the first benefits are the selling of equipment and materials to the NASA for all the experiments and missions. The second benefits are the use of the NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a "Laboratory" to test and maximize the use of equipment or material in extreme condition to improve the materials and equipment that the companies develop and offer them to the public. The difference between the stakeholders of the JPL-Nasa and a standard firm is the expectancy of benefits. The stakeholders of NASA expect benefits (in information, technology, and money) in the long term; that is, more than five year. The stakeholders of a standard firm are to achieve benefits (in dividends or share value) in the short term, that is, less than a year.
The difference between the two types of organizations are important when the stakeholders of NASA need short-term without success, and the pressure over the head of the NASA may provoke failures in the normal operations of the agency and accidents.
The risk is the most important factor that governs the normal operations of the NASA, and its management is the day to day of the agency. Five steps are used for the risk management inside the NASA. The identification consists of the list of all the current and potential risks that may affect the program. The evaluation of the risk consists evaluate the exposure grade and the variables that are not under control. The implementation of the risk management plant uses the most important resources to reduce the risk of the normal operations and special missions. All the process is monitored by the head of the agency and makes corrections in the day-to-day operations.
The head of the JPL, NASA or specific project must put in balance the creativity and innovation process inside the laboratories of the agency, the current resources and the expectations of the public and the government. The project leader must have the ability to work in conservative goals regarding one to three years and maintain the motivation of his team for a great goal or achievement as a human visit to Mars (Youtube, 2016) of to the Jupiter's Moon.
The project leader must have both risk appetite and risk tolerance. A risk appetite it is necessary to give the motivation to the members of the team to deliver more than the expected, to dig more and improve investigation. All the risk appetite must not overcome the risk tolerance which is the maximum risk that the team is an able to face. Since the Challenger accident in 1986, there is a risk tolerance for all the team members to avoid dead accidents that could affect the continuity of specific projects.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as one of the most important units of the NASA in field investigation, it has an important strength which is the previous experience in field analysis in the Earth, Orbital Space, Europe (Jupiter's Moon) and previous missions to Mars (without humans). The weakness of the JPL for a mission to Mars is the complex conditions of the Mars atmosphere and the limited resources that the team disposes of.
The current strategy or the JPL to get access to Mars is the best one. It is necessary to introduce not-tripulated aircraft to Mars for specific missions and guarantee the success of those missions to get experience in the Mars field to launch a more ambitious mission to Mars.
Conclusion
The Jet Propulsion Laboratories are a subsidiary of the NASA that develops exploratory missions, including Mars. Each mission represents a risk for the JPL and the agency. Different to a firm or corporation, a failure in a JPL mission, for example, a mission to Mars may represent the end of the entire mission or even the subsistence of the Agency. The management risk in missions must follow a path of five steps: Identification, Evaluation, Choose, Implementation, and Monitoring. The continuity of the missions to Mars depends on of the identification of all the possible risk that may affect the mission. For that reason, it is necessary to follow a progressive path of investigation of the Mars field to know the unknown parameters of atmosphere, winds, gravity and other factors. With more knowledge, it is possible to reduce the risk and deploy a more ambitious mission in the future to Mars.
Reference List
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2016). Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved from Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.php
Youtube. (2016). Engineers during landing of the Mars Explorer. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9vWGlO1c-g&feature=youtu.be
