and the hardware design side didn't impress me all that much, compared to the LEM and CM.

What impressed me was just sheer dumb luck didn't conspire to fuck them.

Imagine if the pyro for the heat shield jettison didn't go off - pow, right into the desert. Sitting there, waiting to deploy, stuffed in its capsule, never to come out (well except maybe in a few hundred years when an explorer found it).

What if a micrometeorite had slammed through the capsule at around 20-30km/sec? we'd never know - just...POW, no more signals.

Or what if the type of lubricant they used on the wheel bearings was wrong, and they froze up and left it unable to move? etc.

The coders, the engineers, the builders - they were 100% all the time. The impressive part is plain dumb luck.

-----
http://www.thedelversdungeon.com

Thank you, Gary Gygax.
...
I am not going to live in fear. They want my freedom, my peace of mind? Come and get it. - James Lileks, regarding al Qaeda, 09/11
...

• What, no Martians? - MacHead,  08-04-2012 16:00 (Views: 65; Replies: 24)
• There's a fair bit of a discussion about NASA doing manned vs unmanned missions now. [nt] - enet,  08-09-2012 01:55 (Views: 37)
• I think there's little point of a manned mission... - Mr. Spork,  08-10-2012 00:27 (Views: 34)
• The savings factor is considerable too: one way trip, less precious cargo [nt] - enet,  08-10-2012 07:59 (Views: 30)
• Have to say..impressed all to shit with humans and the ability to land that rover.. - Derfargin,  08-06-2012 16:27 (Views: 55)
• The software side of it didn't impress me greatly (wait, hang on a second) - Sydwyndir,  08-06-2012 21:52 (Views: 55)
• You didn't like all the MacBooks in the control room? :) [nt] - Progressivebreaks,  08-08-2012 22:24 (Views: 27)
• Wait...were they photoshopping photos of Arizona to look like Mars? [nt] - Phred,  08-09-2012 16:31 (Views: 27)
• Yikes. One haxor and they could have wiped the probe's entire memory. ;) [nt] - Phred,  08-09-2012 01:39 (Views: 40)
• Nah, they were all running Windows. [nt] - Ordeith,  08-09-2012 15:41 (Views: 31)
• On bootcamp? ;) - Progressivebreaks,  08-11-2012 14:36 (Views: 38)
• The guy on the bottom right must be considered an epic loser! ;) [nt] - Progressivebreaks,  08-12-2012 18:29 (Views: 31)
• Millions of potential hacks then. Even worse. Good point.[nt] - Paul,  08-09-2012 16:02 (Views: 31)
• Ha! No, what I mean and said kind of ineptly is that the team that designed & built - Sydwyndir,  08-09-2012 00:26 (Views: 36)
• I think we should also be doing more stuff on the moon. - Mr. Spork,  08-06-2012 21:35 (Views: 46)
• I would love to send a rover there. - Mork,  08-08-2012 16:29 (Views: 46)
• You mean drive a rover onto the same hollywood set from before? [nt] - Bean,  08-08-2012 16:34 (Views: 26)
• Moon, Mars what's the difference. [nt] - Catfish,  08-10-2012 00:33 (Views: 31)
• A 3 day trip vs. 6 months? [nt] - Mork,  08-14-2012 17:10 (Views: 24)
• snicker. [nt] - Mork,  08-08-2012 21:16 (Views: 27)
• I'm impressed too- maybe the heavy price tag was worth it after all [nt] - MacHead,  08-06-2012 19:18 (Views: 44)
• Yea right. 2.5bn? Drops in le bucket. Pittance. Fractions of cents on our tax dollar. [nt] - Citizen Z,  08-09-2012 03:19 (Views: 37)
• Equivalent to about 31 hours of the defence budget... money well spent I think [nt] - enet,  08-06-2012 23:29 (Views: 47)
• Money wasted! I want my Martians! ;) [nt] - MacHead,  08-08-2012 13:37 (Views: 34)
• +31 [nt] - Mr. Spork,  08-06-2012 23:30 (Views: 34)

 

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