E316 - When the Sky Won't Sleep and the Moon Must Wait
From Human Factors Cast by Human Factors Cast
March 6, 2026 · 58 min · Episode 316
About this episode
Nick Roome and Barry Kirby discuss NASA’s Artemis program overhaul and the challenges of information overload at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Nick Roome and Barry Kirby discuss NASA’s Artemis program overhaul, including a 2028 target for the first crewed lunar landing, added testing to reduce risk from complex first-time operations, a 2027 mission placing at least one lunar lander into low Earth orbit, and testing Axiom Space’s new spacesuit, alongside reflections on safety culture, organizational decision-making, public trust, and trade-offs of higher launch cadence. Our second story is on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory generating 800,000 automated change alerts in one night (with a goal of 7 million), framing it as an information-overload and alert-management problem requiring filtering, metadata, and effective human–machine collaboration, with implications for democratized access and expectation setting. Support us: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/humanfactorscast Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hfactorspodcast Merchandise Store: https://www.humanfactorscast.media/p/Store/ Human Factors Cast Socials: Join us on Discord: https://go.humanfactorscast.media/Discord Twitch: https://twitch.tv/HumanFactorsCast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/HumanFactorsCast LinkedIn…
People in this episode
Host: Nick Roome
Guest: Barry Kirby
Topics covered
- NASA Artemis program
- lunar landing
- safety culture
- organizational decision-making
- information overload
- human-machine collaboration
Keywords
- Artemis program
- lunar lander
- safety culture
- alert management
- human-machine collaboration
- public trust
- launch cadence
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: NASA, Axiom Space, Vera C. Rubin Observatory
More episodes of Human Factors Cast
- E320 - The Human Factors Of Letting AI Cook · May 18, 2026 · 57 min
- E319 - Turns out Space is still a Human Factors Problem · April 17, 2026 · 58 min
- E318 - SXSW 2026 · April 3, 2026 · 1h 5m
- E317 - Monthly Moon Missions Missing Mishap Management · March 20, 2026 · 58 min
- 315 - The Side Effects of AI · February 20, 2026 · 1h 4m
- E314 - Reluctantly, another episode on AI · February 6, 2026 · 56 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Human Factors Cast podcast page.