Akin's how to design a spacecraft

[Brian Ellis]

I've been involved in spacecraft and space systems design and development for my entire career, including teaching the senior-level capstone spacecraft design course, for ten years at MIT and now at the University of Maryland for more than a decade. These are some bits of wisdom that I have gleaned during that time, some by picking up on the experience of others, but mostly by screwing up myself. I originally wrote these up and handed them out to my senior design class, as a strong hint on how best to survive my design experience. Months later, I get a phone call from a friend in California complimenting me on the Laws, which he saw on a "joke-of-the-day" listserve. Since then, I'm aware of half a dozen sites around the world that present various editions of the Laws, and even one site which has converted them to the Laws of Certified Public Accounting. (Don't ask...) Anyone is welcome to link to these, use them, post them, send me suggestions of additional laws, but I do maintain that this is the canonical set of Akin's Laws..

http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html

[Brian R.]

Very true

[GNEP]

Nice. And I can see why accountants wanted to adopt it as well

[KvHagedorn]

God.. what a pain to read type superimposed on graph paper.. my eyes were hurting after one line. This should be rule #1 in website design..

1) Don't use fricken graph paper as a background!

And does anyone really use base 9 graph paper???

[RedRed]

they are just the thing I am looking for at work.... we are getting a severe dose of 'development creep'.


As PM I need to inject a dose of reality.

RedRed

[KvHagedorn]

Very good parameters to follow. They also apply to custom A/V installation, and probably life in general.

[ZokesPro]

26. (Montemerlo's Law) Don't do nuthin' dumb.

[Dr Mordrid]

My favorite;

21. (Larrabee's Law) Half of everything you hear in a classroom is crap. Education is figuring out which half is which.

Now....I wonder which ones Rutan is following?

Dr. Mordrid