Creating an expert system risk assessment tool for precursor analysis

NASA's Accident Precursor Analysis process has been developed as a means to help identify potential underappreciated risks in spaceflight systems. The process has developed to maturity over several years; however it is a complex process with many nuances that can be viewed as daunting to a new user. To help alleviate this confusion, “expert system” software was developed to provide an educated, structured backbone to facilitation of the process. This paper discusses the use of such an application to guide information solicitation where normally one or more human experts would need to be consulted.