I already referred to “You Are Not Expected to Understand This”, in which two chapters refer to space & information correctness:
- A Failure to Interoperate: The Lost Mars Climate Orbiter – Charles Duan
The Mars Climate Orbiter was falling fast.
In the weeks that followed, NASA and its coordinate engineering teams at JPL and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics scrambled to explain the loss of the $145 million spacecraft.
The disaster would have been averted but for a software bug: a missing line of code that should have multiplied a number by 4.45. - “Apollo 11, Do Bailout” – Ellen R. Stofan and Nick Partridge
The code 1202 flashed on a tiny display— and neither the astronauts nor flight controllers knew what it meant.
This book was meant to be a review of the human stories behind programming, enabling those of us who don’t think much about code to recognize its importance, and those who work with it every day to better understand the long-term effects of the decisions they make.
One of the decisions we make is the units of measure.
A striking example is found in a recent report on a meteor event:
“Corgi-sized meteor as heavy as 4 baby elephants hit Texas – NASA“
Not sure if the units of size and weight have been provided by the NASA 😉
Surtil : 