Sounds exactly like another Mars crash: software mixed up feet vs meters, and the lander deduced it was on the surface when actually a couple miles up.
Sounds like NASA/USA/DOD doesn’t want any competition on Mars.
Mars Climate Explorer.
$300 million gone in a millisecond.
“Sounds exactly like another Mars crash: software mixed up feet vs meters, and the lander deduced it was on the surface when actually a couple miles up.”
If we are to believe anything in this article (simply because it’s not DIRECTLY related to politics), at least one of the issues would seem to be a missing zero:
For reasons that are still a mystery, the lander ejected both its heat shield and parachute way ahead of schedule. Schiaparelli then engaged its thrusters for a painfully brief three-second burst—a procedure that was supposed to last for 30 seconds once the lander was just a few feet off the ground.
uh doubt it, cover up