[vtk-developers] Test that software or crash on Mars

[Will Schroeder]

Computing glitch may have doomed Mars lander
<http://www.nature.com/news/computing-glitch-may-have-doomed-mars-lander-1.20861>

"....Schiaparelli sent data to its mother ship during its descent.
Preliminary analysis suggests that the lander began the manoeuvre
flawlessly, braking against the planet’s atmosphere and deploying its
parachute. But at 4 minutes and 41 seconds into an almost 6-minute fall,
something went wrong. The lander’s heat shield and parachute ejected ahead
of time, says Vago. Then thrusters, designed to decelerate the craft for 30
seconds until it was metres off the ground, engaged for only around 3
seconds before they were commanded to switch off, because the lander's
computer thought it was on the ground.

"The lander even switched on its suite of instruments, ready to record
Mars’s weather and electrical field, although they did not collect data.

"The craft probably fell from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometres before
slamming into the ground at more than 300 kilometres per hour, according to
estimates based on images of the probe’s likely crash site, taken by NASA’s
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 20 October.

"The most likely culprit is a flaw in the craft’s software or a problem in
merging the data coming from different sensors, which may have led the
craft to believe it was lower in altitude than it really was, ...



-- 
William J. Schroeder, PhD
Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
28 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065
will.schroeder at kitware.com
http://www.kitware.com
(518) 881-4902
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