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Rob Manning, who headed the Rovers´ landing team made this fantastic observation: "It looks pretty easy, but I want to remind you that we required eight thrusters to turn the vehicle, we had two cooling pumps that had to work, we had the 37 pyrotechnic devices that included two thermal batteries, eight cable cutters, three gas generators, one mortar canon and actually in this case, five or so solid rocket motors. We had four sensors, a star scanner, a sun sensor, a radar altimeter, two inertial measurement units, a descent camera, two radios, one computer and a lot of software and airbags.... [And] they worked!"
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The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it´s comprehensible.--Albert Einstein
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The best time to take action toward a dream is yesterday; the worst is tomorrow; the best compromise is today. --Alvah Simon, North to the Night, A Year in the Arctic Ice
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Until one is committed, there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness,
Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is
one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills
countless ideas and splendid plans:
That the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issue from the decision,
raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents
and meetings and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. --Goethe´s Faust
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The most beautiful thing one can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this reaction is a stranger--who no longer can pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe--is as good as dead, his eyes are closed.--Albert Einstein
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Oh Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not just yet.--Saint Augustine
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The present always contains within it the seeds of the past.... Life may seem absurd, yet...there is a divinely imposed order, however dreary, repetitive and meaningless our existence may appear to us.---From a review by Jonathan Groner of The Sea Is Never Full, by Elie Wiesel.
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It is a dog-eat-dog world, my friend, and you´re wearing "Milkbone" underwear! Apocryphal
"People cannot discover new land until they have the courage to lose sight of the shore."--Andre Gide
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