Principles for Space Experimentation Success

Knowledge on how to successfully plan and carry out space experiments is important to have, whether you are flying a mid-deck on board the Space Shuttle or are the only payload on a Pegasus. This paper will discuss principles for the experimentation team to use in the process. Some will be appropriate, some will not, but using the ones that are will aid the team in getting to a successful conclusion. Managerial techniques and individual lessons learned can be applied to the space experimentation process. From pre-launch planning to post-launch data evaluation, there are things a project manager, yes even an entire team, need to remember. Principles to guide decisions and discussions, affecting every aspect of a successful operation. The effort and expense of doing a space experiment daunts every person who attempts it. The principles exposed below may provide the experimenter with relevant insights and guidance so that many pitfalls may be avoided