Top all-time · #1452
Dave Akin
Personal blog · spacecraft.ssl.umd.edusciencehardware
Dave Akin's personal blog at spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu covers science and hardware. Since 2011, 51 different Hacker News readers have linked it 72 times, most often “Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Most-linked posts?
- Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design31 people · 44 mentions · first linked 2018-06-01
- Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2003)18 people · 20 mentions · first linked 2011-01-10
- Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-04-25
- Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-09-27
What Hacker News says?
Why is there's always an Akin's law? > 38. Capabilities drive requirements, regardless of what the systems engineering textbooks say. https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2003) as a story · 558 points
HN discussionAkin's Laws of Spacecraft Design: 39. (alternate formulation) The three keys to keeping a new human space program affordable and on schedule: 1) No new launch vehicles. 2) No new launch vehicles. 3) Whatever you do, don't develop any new launch vehicles. I'll admit it does say human space program but it doesn't specify where the humans are. https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 303 points
HN discussionAkin's law #2: To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort. This is why it's a good idea to design them to operate when some things are wrong. I think there's some truth to that :) Source: http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “GitHub and Rails: You have let us all down.”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 240 points
HN discussionThese will carry you over until the "real" ones appear: https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Show HN: Zero – A fast, zero-configuration server for React, Node.js, Markdown”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 134 points
HN discussionThis story reminds me of https://despair.com/products/consulting . Also law 23 from https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html seems appropriate: The schedule you develop will seem like a complete work of fiction up until the time your customer fires you for not meeting it.
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Story: “It would be career limiting..."”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 132 points
HN discussionAkin's rules for spacecraft design [0] include: "Any exploration program which "just happens" to include a new launch vehicle is, de facto, a launch vehicle program." By analogy, any software project that includes writing a database is, de facto, a database project. [0] http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Never Write Your Own Database (2017)”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 27 points
HN discussionThe Ancient Aliens discovered the same laws of engineering: 5. (Miller's Law) Three points determine a curve. 6. (Mar's Law) Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker. https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
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on “Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 8 points
HN discussionJust so. In the 1990s I was part of a group called the Space Access Society, which was a bunch of cranky but idealistic rocket scientists (and enthusiastic amateurs; John Carmack was a constant presence with his Armadillo Aerospace) trying to foster cheap access to space by any means possible. These efforts were regarded with huge levels of skepticism / disinterest / dismissal from NASA and the mainstream aerospace…
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 7 points
HN discussion>...random tire blowout... I'm not saying your point isn't valid, however... http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design: "25. (Bowden's Law) Following a testing failure, it's always possible to refine the analysis to show that you really had negative margins all along." Your tire blowout wasn't "random," from this perspective, it occurred due to a failure at some point: inadequate…
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on “Tesla Was Kicked Off Fatal Crash Probe by NTSB”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSimilar: https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html > 39. Any exploration program which "just happens" to include a new launch vehicle is, de facto, a launch vehicle program. > 39. (alternate formulation) The three keys to keeping a new human space program affordable and on schedule: > 1) No new launch vehicles. > 2) No new launch vehicles. > 3) Whatever you do, don't develop any new launch vehicles.
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Accidentally making a language, for an engine, for a game”Submitted Akin's laws of spacecraft design: 404 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAkin's Laws of Spacecraft Design [1], law no. 2: To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort. This is why it's a good idea to design them to operate when some things are wrong. [1] http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/old_site/academics/akins_laws....
Comment linking /old_site/academics/akins_laws.html
on “Working with the Chaos Monkey”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2003) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> 15. (Shea's Law) The ability to improve a design occurs primarily at the interfaces. This is also the prime location for screwing it up. https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “A Taxonomy of Tech Debt (2018)”Submitted Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAerospace says π, but they do separate normalization of time and costs: > 29. (von Tiesenhausen's Law of Program Management) To get an accurate estimate of final program requirements, multiply the initial time estimates by pi, and slide the decimal point on the cost estimates one place to the right. https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/old_site/academics/akins_laws...
Comment linking /old_site/academics/akins_laws.html
on “Always Multiply Your Estimates by π (2013)”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionNice pun. Possibly also gets points for being a reference to number 6 in this classic list: https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html 6. (Mar's Law) Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker.
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “The stable marriage problem and modern dating”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 2 points
HN discussionEverything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker (Mar's Law) [1]. [1]: https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html
Comment linking /akins_laws.html
on “Everything is a linear model”Submitted Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
