standing on the shoulders of giants
Test How You Fly and Fly How You Test
Problems can and will be found testing on the Earth before launching into an orbit of a body. This is vastly superior to finding problems after launch!!! Both in cost and human expenditure, the savings are incalculable.
Two is One and One is None!
Redundancy is key in a space mission and in I.T. (Information Technology). If you want two components to work: you must maintain four of them, for one to work reliably you must maintain and test two continually.
If the Schedule is Long: Then the Design is Wrong
Construction of The Skyhook can, and MUST BE DONE! It requires no new technology, no intensive prototyping, and no new laws of physics; just willpower and clarity of purpose combined with stellar engineering mettle. This is the beginning of humans and humanity becoming one with the stars...
Don't Let Perfect Become the Enemy of Good
Often in my profession, things are going amazingly well with the things we have implemented. Banish the thought of "If we could just do X then the system would be perfect!" This invariably leads to many a ruinous night and sleepless weekend to bring back what was working swimmingly but was thrown into chaos by the pursuit of perfection!!!
Comet 67P/CHURYUMOV–GERASIMENKO
First Mission To Comet 67P: ESA (European Space Agency) Rosetta
"...Taken by Rosetta's navigation camera (NAVCAM) on 19 September 2014 at 28.6 km (17.8 mi) from the centre of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The images used for this mosaic were taken in sequence as a 2×2 raster over an approximately 20 minute period, meaning that there is some motion of the spacecraft and rotation of the comet between the images." ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM,
Learning Materials