“Houston, we have a problem.” It’s 1970, and NASA has just launched another manned space expedition, Apollo 13. It is the seventh manned expedition, and the third scheduled to land on the moon. People have become fairly jaded about these expeditions. As a result, little air time is devoted to televising the mission – until an oxygen tank explosion occurs that cripples the spacecraft and strands its three astronauts 205,000 miles above the Earth. While the astronauts search for ways to survive in the limited time they have left, NASA’s heroic ground crew searches for ways to bring the craft safely back home using nothing more than the items available to the men on board. As we all know from history (and a really great Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks), they find a solution, and all ends well.

While more dramatic than the usual types of problems we encounter in everyday life, the Apollo 13 story contains all of the elements that comprise all problem-solving, from the little annoying problems (like finding your lost keys) to potentially life-changing ones (like finding a cure for a deadly disease.)