Risk Communication: Communicating Risks as a Function of Good Risk Management

Abstract

This paper is the third in a session on risk assessment, management and communication for missions proposing to utilize space nuclear power. NASA’s risk management policies require ‘good risk communication as a function of good risk management’. The risk communication referenced here refers to conveying internal messages related to threats to cost and schedule factors in the successful completion of any project. Sometimes internal risk communication also refers to quantifiable threats to human health or the environment, for example the hazards of and the care needed for handling rocket fuel. Risk communication in both of these cases can be either a necessary evil or a means for program and project managers to improve communication skills. It is when a proposed mission recommends the use of nuclear energy for spacecraft power that the need for good internal risk communication becomes explicit instead of implicit. This paper will review risk communication principles, most often applied externally by NASA for missions utilizing space nuclear power, and will apply these principles to internal risk management, where risk communication is found to be a productive alternate approach to identifying, assessing, mitigating and accepting risks.