Soft skills in space

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There is no room for "Monday business"

Back during the Apollo missions, three astronauts had to share about 210 cubic feet of living space during flight, and two astronauts had to share about 160 cubic feet of living space while on the lunar surface.

Danger

Two hundred cubic feet is about the size of a 5 -foot by 5-foot storage box , and the astronauts shared that space for up to two weeks at a time. There was no room (literally) for selfish behavior or petty disagreements. When you're halfway between Earth and Mars, you can't just take a walk around the block to cool off after a heated argument.

How Space Project Management Can Save Us

Project management software is beginning to automate what makes overseas chinese in australia data valuable asset more of the formal project management skills with the help of artificial intelligence , such as planning, budgeting, and monitoring. However, human project managers working on a Mars mission will need to excel in soft skills and promote the kind of collaboration demonstrated by the Apollo 13 astronauts to resolve conflicts.

Chief among these soft skills are:

Communication: A project manager who doesn't know how to talk to his team shouldn't be a project manager.
Make decisions. The project manager must determine the direction of the project so that scientists, engineers, and developers can focus on their work.
Motivation: A project manager wears many hats, one of them being a coach.
Conflict Management: Disagreement and hostility can be toxic in an Earth office, let alone on the Red Planet. Project managers must identify destructive conflicts and address the root of the disagreement head-on.
“Assuming we get to Mars… in a few decades, by then all the traditional tasks that project managers do now – scoping, planning, budgeting, monitoring, etc. – will be done by AI,” says Sergey Brovkin, a project manager and productivity consultant at Collectiver. “What will be left to the project manager are the soft responsibilities and roles: team building, mentoring, engaging… and reminding team members to remember and share lessons learned on a daily basis.”

Anticipating the success of a project in space


The only thing missing is a white picket fence

Anyone who was alive when Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Eagle and walked on the Moon will undoubtedly remember that moment - exactly where they were, who they were with, and how they felt - for the rest of their lives.

Just imagine what it would be like to witness a similar event - only in high definition and perhaps even in virtual reality - in our lifetime.

“A time-honored project practice is to think about what the end will be and work to implement all the things that need to happen to realize that vision of the end,” Quigley says. “Every idea needs to be viewed from the perspective of the forest and the tree, anticipating the ripple effects on other parts of the system and the consequences for the colonists.”

There will be many people who think that a mission to Mars is at best a fantasy, and at worst a huge waste of time and resources that could be better spent on our home planet. But with a smart approach based on proven project management principles, human colonization of Mars in our lifetime is entirely possible and could be key to the survival of our species.