In article ,
Derek Lyons wrote:
And if the video isn't enough to make you nervous, consider that the
lander chassis is essentially a duplicate of that of the late lamented
Mars Polar Lander.

Why would that make you nervous? The failure of MPL wasn't a design
error so far as we know.

So far as we know. We *think* we know why MPL failed, but we lack
confirmation -- the touchdown-sensor problem certainly would have killed
it, but it's also possible that something else went wrong. This chassis
so far is 0 for 1 on landing attempts.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |