Design and Human Factor

Michael Foale, an astronautic at NASA, technical experts attempting both in Moscow and in the United States to locate air leak, and Alexander Kaleri, a Russia crewmember of Michael and earth control staff were key characters in this report (Picture Window, 2016).
The team served as an international space station module in Houston at the Destiny laboratory.
The craft was a football field of thirty billion dollars which surrounded the planet.
This craft would fly the sun’s rays and the cold shade cast by the sun 17 times around the earth. On January 2, the controllers realize that they are losing internal atmospheric pressure (BBC News, 2016).
What failed?
The picture frame failed. This is seen when the Michael himself traces the problem. Before, technical experts realized that the craft had air pressure leak and if this issue were not addressed, Michael’s team would face dire consequences because they were not only losing air pressure but also pressure had dropped for about three weeks.
Who failed ?
The Americans failed because led by their pride; they wanted to design the best frame window ever.
The Russian technicians also failed because without any investigations, they ruled that the loss in air pressure was a normal fluctuation in pressure expected in every sizeable pressurized craft.
The ground technicians both in America and Russia also failed because they kept on blaming each other.
How did it happen?
What made this accident to occur was the picture window design which was developed by the Americans. When Michael’s listening device touched the loop of the silver hose, he heard a suspicious noise and after moving it gently, the loss of air pressure increased. This means that the design of the frame window was inappropriate for the desired mission.

On January 2, the technical team realizes that the craft is losing internal air pressure.
The Russian team in Mexico assumes that it is normal for large aircrafts to lose air pressure.
In the spaceship, for more than two weeks, the two craftsmen look for possible causes of this leak without success and they are advised by the ground technical team to close all compartments from their remote ends, but the leak continued. This meant that the leak was more centrally positioned.
The American technological team was blaming the Russian team that they were responsible, but the craftsmen were in good terms with each other.
At first, Michael inspects the craft by himself but is not successful. However, when convinced by his crewmate, he decides to carry out the investigation the second time, and the problem is finally detected (Smith & Riley, 2015).

Official inquiries are based on what Michael found out about the frame window design which was developed by the Americans. When Michael’s listening device touched the loop of the silver hose, he heard a suspicious noise and after moving it gently, the loss of air pressure increased (BBC News, 2016). This means that the design of the frame window was inappropriate for the desired mission.

I disagree with these findings. The primary cause of this accident was the desire for Americans to create the best frame window ever (Lynette, 2001). Unlike the Russians who filled the interglass with nitrogen; they made sure that the interglass had nothing.

The desire for Americans to create the best frame window was the major cause of this accident. They crafted a window frame which would leak putting the occupants of the ship in danger. The primary way this accident could have been prevented is if the Russians and the Americans worked together to produce the most appropriate picture window. By working together, they would have shared ideas (Stephen Edgell, 2012).

References
BBC News . (2004, December 31). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4135695.stm.
BBC News. (2016, July 17). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-36549109/mir-spacecraft-worst-collision-in-the-history-of-space-flight.
Lynette, S. (2001). Cultural Sociology. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
NASA. (n.d). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090041614.pdf.
Picture Window. (2016). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Case_Study__6_Picture_Window_Due_10_13_16__copy.pdf.
SMith, P., & Riley, A. (2015). Cultural Theory. Washington DC: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stephen Edgell, H. G. (2012). A handbook of sociology. Washington DC: Sage Publications .