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Why the Mars Climate Orbiter went off course

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/why-the-mars-probe-went-off-course

by sehugg • 10 years ago

3 1 10 years ago

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spectrum.ieee.org

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unpythonic• 10 years ago

The failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter usually stars in hallway discussions on types or notation. This article shows a long chain of failures far more subtle than the punchline to which it's relegated. Design failures in the beginning led to untracked course translation during what was supposed to be rotation-only maneuvers. The infamous units of thrust issue between JPL (newtons) and Lockheed (pounds force) was certainly an issue, but from the article it doesn't seem to be the primary cause of failure. And finally management defaulting to an everything-is-ok attitude and ignoring the nervous input of the navigators meant that when evidence was building that something was wrong, it was ignored.

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