Can a team member lose Karma?
In the game there is no karma loss for losing only a karma reduction for aborting the mission or a reduction if you have to much karma of for the mission you are going on. Due to the random nature of the game it can be very harsh if you can actually lose karma for failing a mission as depending on the luck it can be very easy for a team to either easily crush a game or easily be crushed by the game depending on the obstacles, crossfire cards and black market cards that are drawn during the game. In this game karma is not like reputation but it is experience points which are gained for succeeding in missions and that is something that is not normally lost easily in most games.

Another thing to remember is that if you do lose karma for failing a mission that would put a lot more pressure on any new players who may be 
playing with experienced players as a failure would risk the more experienced player losing valuable upgrades. 

Below I have listed the karma rules for the basic mission


  Karma Awards: If the team wins, each runner gets 3 Karma.
  If the team aborts, and has a successful abort run round, each
  runner gets 1 Karma. The team can also choose the following
  bonus challenge options:
  
  › Bring It On!: Flip up one additional obstacle at the start
  of each Scene: +1 Karma for each runner
  
  › Danger Zone: Start the game with one card in the
  Crossfire discard: +2 Karma for each runner (In the same
  game, the team can choose this option up to once for
  each runner.)  
  
  Karma Scaling: Each runner gains the following Karma award
  or penalty based on how much Karma they have. 
  
  CROSSFIRE KARMA SCALING KARMA IN UPGRADES AWARD OR PENALTY
  0-10 FULL KARMA AWARD
  11-30 -1 KARMA PENALTY
  31-50 -2 KARMA PENALTY
  51-75 -3 KARMA PENALTY
  EACH ADDITIONAL +25 ADDITIONAL -1 KARMA PENALTY