Critical Thinking

A Conversation with NASA Chief Mike Griffin

Whether you are provisioning a sailing ship for a voyage to the New World, planning the exploration of the solar system, or figuring out how to get ready for your own future in a changing world, critical thinking skills can help you prepare for the unknown.

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Flying on Mars

If you want to build a vehicle that will fly on Mars, you might start by asking two questions: 1) How do things fly on Earth? 2) How is Mars different from Earth?

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The Horse Doctor

For a veterinarian, critical thinking starts with having a clear idea of what something should be, continues by collecting information about what it is, and concludes with the application of knowledge and experience to bring about improvement.

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Revisiting the Moon

If your goal is the exploration and commercialization of space for the benefit of mankind, one of the first challenges you run into is the difficulty and expense of getting materials, equipment and people up out of the earth’s "gravity well."

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Second Skin Capability

When you run into a problem that no one has ever solved before, the first step of problem-solving becomes especially important: make sure you understand exactly what the problem is. The more clearly you understand what you’re trying to accomplish, the better your solution is likely to be.

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The Space Sling

Some problems seem quite difficult to solve because of the way they are stated. Critical thinkers, when faced with an apparently insolvable problem, will think carefully about the way the problem is stated and what assumptions might underlie that statement.

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Spaceports

Whether you’re talking about privately owned and operated rockets to ferry cargo to low earth orbit, or the customers already in line for the opportunity to weightlessly gaze upon Earth from outer space, the “personal space flight revolution” will bring a new element of infrastructure to our communities: Spaceports. Building and operating these new launch facilities will require science, technology, engineering, math, imagination and problem solving skills.

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