Think Like a Rocket Scientist

The fi rst step to knowledge—to fi nding the answer—is to eliminatewhat isn’t true. Thomas Edison, during his struggle to createthe incandescent light bulb, performed thousands of unsuccessfultrials. When reporters asked him what he thought about his lackof progress, he replied: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found ten thousandways that won’t work!”Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave us many lessons about thinkingthrough his brilliant fi ctional detective, Sherlock Holmes, whoexplains his methods to his sidekick, Dr. Watson. On one occasion,Holmes tells Dr. Watson, “When you have eliminated the impossible,whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”By the way, this is not a bad strategy when taking multiple-choicetests (such as the SATs, GREs, and IQ tests) where you may notbe sure of the right answer but can appear a lot smarter by eliminatingthe answers you know are wrong.We get another glimpse into the mind of genius when, early onin an investigation, Dr. Watson asks Holmes to reveal his currenthunch about a crime. “I have devised seven separate explanations,each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them. Butwhich of these is correct can only be determined by . . . freshinformation. . . .”We see the fundamental concepts of trial and error, of hypotheticalsolution generation and elimination, of brainstorming, andof judging. We will discuss judging later. For now we will concentrateon the process of entertaining many different solutionssimultaneously.Brainstorming consists of making a long list of possibilities. Thegoal is to create as many ideas (the good, the bad, and the ugly) asyou can, to make your list as long as possible. (Here’s a situationwhere length really does matter.)No idea, no matter how absurd, stupid, ridiculous, or silly,should be discarded. Absolutely no judgment should be made atthis stage. Turn your judging mind (your logic center) off. Makeit a kitchen-sink argument: throw everything at your problem (butthe kitchen sink). You can do this exercise alone or with a group,but it’s more fun with a group. Too many cooks will not spoil thebroth.Give your creativity (and everyone else’s) free rein. (Andremember—BS, which could also stand for brainstorming, works!)Don’t take the process too seriously. Don’t be afraid to play withideas. The time to criticize will come later. You may be searchingfor a needle in a haystack, but you fi rst must build the haystack.To land a man on the moon within the decade, as PresidentKennedy directed, rocket scientists had a preconceived idea. Wewould build a rocket that would launch from the surface of Earthand would land all three men directly on the surface of the moon.After planting their fl ag, leaving their footprints in the dust, andcollecting rock samples, the three men would blast off from thelunar surface and return directly to Earth.But that is not how it was accomplished.Original calculations demonstrated that a super rocket, dubbedthe Nova, would have to be constructed. It would be 500 feet tall(as tall as a 50-story building) and would weigh 12 million pounds.It seemed impossible to everyone but Wernher von Braun whodreamt of this super rocket.But then a NASA Langley engineer, Dr. John C. Houbolt(which rhymes with cobalt) proposed a different approach: lunarorbital rendezvous. Instead of landing all three men on the moonalong with the return rocket, Houbolt suggested parking the returnvehicle in orbit around the moon, piloted by one of the astronauts.A much smaller vehicle, the lunar module, would take two astronautsdown to the lunar surface and later back up to the lunarparking orbit. The lunar module would be incapable of returningto Earth on its own power. It would have to rendezvous with themother ship (the command service module), which had the propellantto send the three astronauts home.When the concept of lunar rendezvous was suggested, it wasconsidered crazy and dangerous. At fi rst, NASA’s famous spacecraftdesigner, Max Faget, was a bitter opponent and told Houbolt,“Your fi gures lie!” If the men were unable to catch up with themother ship, they would die in lunar orbit. Only the astronaut inthe command module could return alive.The idea was the result of brainstorming—thinking outside thebox. And it changed everything. Rocket scientists would have todevelop a technique to join two spacecraft in space. The conceptwas tested during the Gemini program in the relative safety of Earthorbit. After some harrowing, nearly fatal missions, rendezvous anddocking in space was successfully demonstrated.Lunar rendezvous eliminated the need to build the rocket ofvon Braun’s dreams (the Nova) and allowed men to reach the moonwith the much smaller Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V was stillgigantic at 365 feet tall (36 stories) and weighing 7 million pounds.This little brother of the Nova got America to the moon in onlyeight years, easily fulfi lling President Kennedy’s challenge. Butwithout the brainchild of John Houbolt, it would never have happened.Moments after Mission Control confi rmed that Armstrongand Aldrin had safely landed on the moon, Werner von Braunturned to Houbolt and said, “John, it worked beautifully.”