Apollo Moon landings were highly complex missions and involved a huge amount of technical information, processes, operational procedures, and so on. It would have been impossible for anyone to absorb all of this effectively and share it with the people who needed to use it make quick but potentially life-threatening decisions.
So the architects and planners came up with a novel concept: Mission Rules.
Basically, mission rules were high-level guidelines about WHAT to do in case of a particular scenario. What to do if 2 out of 5 Saturn V rocket engines shut down abruptly? What to do if the spacecraft was supposed to do X but it was doing Y. Everyone responsible for the mission, the flight control team, simulation team, the astronauts, systems engineers, participated in the formulation of these rules, and this activity comprised a significant chunk of the mission preparation time.
The mission rules were consolidated into huge documents, and they were frequently referred to by mission control team and a copy was always carried onboard the spacecraft.
Interestingly, all of us actually use a kind of mission rule book throughout our lives. When we are born, our minds are (almost) a clean slate. As we grow up, we learn from our parents, family members, friends, teachers, books, other media, and most importantly, our own experiences. All of these come together at a subconscious level to determine how we react to any situation.
I feel that the concept of mission rules would come very handy in streamlining our thought-processes. It forces us to keep asking what-if, why-not, how-to type of questions to ourselves, and at least try to come up with answers. Secondly, it helps in sharing our knowledge with others in a more effective way. Next, it helps avoid knee-jerk reactions without thinking the things through. And lastly, it takes off a lot of stress from the knowledge that we have some preparation done for most, if not all, situations.
So the architects and planners came up with a novel concept: Mission Rules.
Basically, mission rules were high-level guidelines about WHAT to do in case of a particular scenario. What to do if 2 out of 5 Saturn V rocket engines shut down abruptly? What to do if the spacecraft was supposed to do X but it was doing Y. Everyone responsible for the mission, the flight control team, simulation team, the astronauts, systems engineers, participated in the formulation of these rules, and this activity comprised a significant chunk of the mission preparation time.
The mission rules were consolidated into huge documents, and they were frequently referred to by mission control team and a copy was always carried onboard the spacecraft.
Interestingly, all of us actually use a kind of mission rule book throughout our lives. When we are born, our minds are (almost) a clean slate. As we grow up, we learn from our parents, family members, friends, teachers, books, other media, and most importantly, our own experiences. All of these come together at a subconscious level to determine how we react to any situation.
I feel that the concept of mission rules would come very handy in streamlining our thought-processes. It forces us to keep asking what-if, why-not, how-to type of questions to ourselves, and at least try to come up with answers. Secondly, it helps in sharing our knowledge with others in a more effective way. Next, it helps avoid knee-jerk reactions without thinking the things through. And lastly, it takes off a lot of stress from the knowledge that we have some preparation done for most, if not all, situations.
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