Satisficing

- [Jill] Hi, I'm Jill Butler,…and this is the Universal Principles of Design.…In this movie, satisficing,…or don't let perfect be the enemy of good.…On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 left the launchpad…at Cape Canaveral, Florida, en route to the moon.…But 56 hours into the flight,…an electrical failure occurred…in the command module of the spacecraft,…causing the mission to be aborted…and forcing the three-person crew…to take refuge in the lunar lander.…

Unfortunately, the carbon dioxide filters…aboard the lunar lander were designed…to only support two people for two days,…the planned duration of a lunar landing,…and not the the three people for four days…needed to return the crew safely to Earth.…The square carbon dioxide filters…of the abandoned command module…had the capacity to filter the excess carbon dioxide,…but they did not fit into the round filter receptacle…of the lunar lander.…Using materials available on the spacecraft,…such as plastic bags, cardboard from log books,…and duct tape,…NASA engineers designed a process to create…