[Verse 1] Male: Write the mission statement, chisel it in stone, "Land a man on Luna, bring him safely home." That's the mother requirement, sitting at the crown, Now we flow it downward, branch by branch, down. Female: Sub-system catches it, translates what it heard, Structures, props, guidance — each one gets a word. Traceability matrix keeps the chain unbroken, Every bolt and circuit board answers what was spoken. [Chorus] Flow it down, trace it back, that's the requirement track Direct, Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit — pick your architecture stack Mass and power, delta-v, link — budget every single ounce Margin's not a maybe, it's the difference that counts [Verse 2] Male: Von Braun stacked three ships tall for a straight-shot direct dash, One big booster, no rendezvous — the rocket equation smashed that plan to trash. Female: Earth orbit rendezvous — assemble in the black, Two launches meet and mate before the outward track. Male: Then Houbolt in the back room fought the whole committee, Said leave a mothership in lunar orbit, drop a lander pretty — Lunar orbit rendezvous, the mass falls through the floor, Small craft kisses moondust while the big ship waits at the door. [Chorus] Flow it down, trace it back, that's the requirement track Direct, Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit — pick your architecture stack Mass and power, delta-v, link — budget every single ounce Margin's not a maybe, it's the difference that counts [Verse 3] Female: Every kilogram's a fight, write it in the ledger, Contingency reserve for the engineer who's clever. Watts divided fair between the heater and the pump, Rocket equation humming underneath every jump. Male: Delta-v's the currency, spend it wise and slow, Burn a little here for the orbit that you owe. Link budget whispers cross a quarter-million miles, Decibels and dish size counting all the while. Female: Margin ain't the safety net you cash in at the end, It's the breathing room that stops the whole plan from bend. [Bridge] Male: Hundred vendors, ten thousand parts, gotta all agree, Interface Control Document — the treaty, the decree. Bolt pattern, voltage, connector, and the thread, Write it once in black and white before the metal's bled. Female: Test like you fly, and fly like you tested, Every valve and weld gets thoroughly molested — Vibration table, vacuum chamber, thermal cycle spin, Find the weakness on the ground before you send it in. Male: FMEA counts the ways a system comes undone, Fault tree traces backward till you find the smoking gun. Female: Single point of failure — that's the villain of the tale, Redundant path beside it, so one break don't mean you fail. Male: Configuration management locks the version true, So the part that flew in testing is the same part that flew.
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