With only two weeks left to go, why was a multimeter completing the telemetry circuit?
Why would you not use a multimeter two weeks before launch? The two things are orthogonal to each other.
My $500M Mars rover mistake
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Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#22Why would you ever allow people to work 12-hour days on something so important? Grad student labour is cheap, surely trying to have one person do the work of two is a false economy.
So the work is too important to work 12 hour shifts on it, yet your solution is throwing “cheap” grad students at it?
Wait until I tell you who's doing work in hospitals and how much they're being paid for it.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#23How is this a $500 million mistake? It seems the issues didn’t cost $500 million.
It was feared to be a $500M mistake.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#24How is this a $500 million mistake? It seems the issues didn’t cost $500 million.
I guess the idea is that it potentially could have cost $500 million therefore it was a $500 million mistake. It's not exactly accurate but it does help contextualize the gravity of their mistake.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#25Why would you ever allow people to work 12-hour days on something so important? Grad student labour is cheap, surely trying to have one person do the work of two is a false economy.
So the work is too important to work 12 hour shifts on it, yet your solution is throwing “cheap” grad students at it?
> work is too important to work 12 hour shifts on it
Yes. Because it is know that exhausted people make mistakes. The work is too important to let exhausted people screw it up so you should make sure everyone working on it is well rested.
> your solution is throwing “cheap” grad students at it
Yes? It is testing an electric motor. They can do it. The solution is that you employ enough people so nobody needs to work 12 hour heroic shifts.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#26This clickbait title is misleading.
"My almost $500M mistake" doesn't have the same ring.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#27Another failure is from the person who used the multimeter to complete a circuit - and then didn't even leave a note on the multimeter. That person could reasonably have anticipated this error mode, and taken steps to prevent it.
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#28Reminds me of a quote attributed to Thomas J Watson:
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?
Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#29Re: My $500M Mars rover mistake
#30So If I understand it correctly, the electrical connector was genderless? If so, that's relatively rare (the only ones I can think of are Anderson Powerpole, which I don't think are rated for interplanetary vehicles) and extremely stupid. Edit: I suppose he could've been using alligator leads.
This was a test fixture so probably banana leads.