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Space Glitches — Parallax Forums

Space Glitches

ercoerco Posts: 20,260
edited 2012-10-09 17:34 in General Discussion
Did the Curiosity rover spot a shiny piece of... itself laying on the Martian surface?
http://news.yahoo.com/curiosity-rover-scoops-1st-mars-sample-finds-bright-155911794.html

SpaceX rocket glitch puts satellite in wrong orbit:
http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-rocket-glitch-puts-satellite-wrong-orbit-213039503--sector.html

Comments

  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-10-09 17:34
    The SpaceX glitch was actually a nice demo of failure recovery. It's kind of hard to justify live tests of systems that would jeopardize the mission if they fail as last backup, so you don't really know f'sure whether they will work unless they're used because they're needed. If I had a Falcon launch coming up this would actually make me more confident in SpaceX.

    Ride-along missions like the OrbComm tend to be discounted because there's no guarantee that you will get a particular orbit. They still get to check out their hardware in space and while they're obviously disappointed they can't get this bird where they want it they don't sound like they're having second thoughts about the missions to launch the rest of their constellation where they'll be the main mission with priority if there's a glitch.

    As for Curiosity... it's a miracle that thing got to the surface in one piece. I can't be the only one who watched the descent profile vid and when they got to the bit about lowering it from a sky crane threw my hands in the air and shouted at the monitor OK GUYS NOW YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF.
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