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Space is hard. Goes to show they have thorough and extensive testing and caught this now rather than losing the mission in 2020.
by geuis 9y ago
Space is hard. Goes to show they have thorough and extensive testing and caught this now rather than losing the mission in 2020.
- mattnewton 9y agoDefinitely this. Better to lose a shield prototype than a fancy rover you already spent millions to hurl into space.
- mattashii 9y agoThe article isn't 100% clear on this, but to me it reads that the actual heat shield that they were going to use in the mission broke (not a prototype). Which is still much better than the alternative (losing a multi-billion dollar project in Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly)
- duskwuff 9y agoYep. Much better for the heat shield to break in a test chamber on Earth and have to be rebuilt, than for it to break during Mars atmospheric reentry and end the mission.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoSpace is hard. Things get broke. Your mission still Must not choke. Burma Shave (H/T to the RhymeZone rhyming dictionary...)