Archive for May, 2011

When Close Isn’t Good Enough

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
When Close Isn’t Good Enough

For a lot of engineering problems, “almost right” isn’t good enough. Remember the Mars Climate Orbiter? Traveling through space for nearly a year, and covering 700 million kilometers, the Orbiter disintegrated after entering the Martian atmosphere at an altitude just one-hundred kilometers lower than planned. That’s like a $100 million dart exploding when you miss... »

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »