e.g.
ROU Sticky Throttle Valve
Edit: In case anyone is wondering about about the connection to the Culture, the SpaceX "Autonomous spaceport drone ships" are named after Culture ships:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_spaceport_drone_shi...
Just Read the Instructions
and
Of Course I Still Love You
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cult...
Rather like 'Look, that's not an "Explosion"' as well... :-)
Edit: I'm hoping that the first manned ship on Mars will be "The Ends of Invention".... ;-)
Problem with Mars landings is the high turnaround time - while you can see what failed and fix it in a matter of days to weeks on Earth, with Mars you're looking at months to years of having another attempt.
Wonder how they'll get it done - practice on Moon first?
In fact, some of the best data and tests we have about landing big things on Mars come from SpaceX's first stage booster landings. The burn that the first stage does at the edge of space to slow down is in an environment very similar to that of the Martian atmosphere.
For example Pathfinder decelerated from 7.3km/s to 0.4km/s purely using it's aeroshell, before it even deployed the parachutes[0]. Now 0.4km/s is still pretty fast, but a saving of 6.9km/s dV is absolutely enormous.
Red Dragon was only possible because, with modifications to the capsule aerodynamics, the Martian atmosphere would brake the capsule enough for it to soft-land on the SuperDracos. There's no way a Dragon could usefuly soft-land on the Moon. It's just way too heavy for it's size. All that thick capsule hull is just dead weight for an airless environment. Given it's high dry mass the rocket equation demands huge amounts of fuel to compensate. The parameters are all wrong for the Moon because it's designed to use atmospheric drag to do most of the work.
On the moon, you don't have to worry about reentry at all, so no need for a heat shield or any sort of aerodynamic protection, just some way to do a propulsive landing.
On earth, you need the heat shield and some aero considerations, but you can land safely with parachutes alone.
On mars, you need to deal with reentry but also some sort of propulsive landing system for anything of reasonable size.
We should do it like old times: get team B, C, D and E and send multiple ships. Even with 75% failure we get one success. And the best are still alive on earth to advise those in space.
Same problem with health in space: we send people in peak Earth physical condition. Perfectly adapted to 1G with no radiation. Why don't we try sending people with what are considered physical defect on earth there and see if they're better adapted to space?
That sounds interesting actually. What if we sent up some handicapped people, or people with amputated limbs? Missing legs might be a burden on Earth, but a benefit in space.
Massively off topic, of course.
It is, by far, my preferred Culture book and the one that apply the best today.