The moon vehicle system was based on a modular design. One advantage of such a design – that failure in one component is less likely to compromise the whole – was demonstrated on the Apollo 13 mission. The astronauts were brought back safely to earth despite an explosion that damaged systems on the principal craft. Any engineer will tell you of the importance of making complex systems robust. You need inspections to prevent failure, to be sure: but since failures are inevitable it is equally important to try to ensure that the consequences of such failure are contained.
月球車系統(tǒng)建立在模塊設計的基礎之上。此類設計的一個好處是，一個部件的故障不太可能影響到整體，這一點在阿波羅13號登月任務中得到了體現(xiàn)。盡管一場爆炸破壞了主艙中的系統(tǒng)，但宇航員仍被安全帶回了地球。任何一位工程師都會告訴你，把復雜系統(tǒng)做得堅固非常重要。誠然，你需要進行檢查系統(tǒng)以防止故障的發(fā)生，但既然故障不可避免，那么確保這類故障后果可控也同樣重要。