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An erstwhile colleague of mine worked on the component that destroyed the Ariane 5; it performed exactly to spec, detecting that the vehicle was out of control
by tragomaskhalos 13y ago
An erstwhile colleague of mine worked on the component that destroyed the Ariane 5; it performed exactly to spec, detecting that the vehicle was out of control - due to the integer overflow (in another, unrelated component nb) - and self-destructing it to prevent it crashing to earth. However explaining this subtlety to a rabid press was a different story, and the whole thing became a bit of a PR disaster
- diminish 13y agoself-destroying components sound interesting. do you have any info/links to which type of technology is used in this component?
- tragomaskhalos 13y agoI think you misunderstood - the purpose was to self-destruct the rocket, so although I don't know the details I'd imagine it was a sensor to detect the vehicle exceeding its flight parameters coupled to either an explosive packet or something in the fuel system to make the rocket go bang
- gnu8 13y agoNothing too fancy, just strategically placed explosive charges to break up the vehicle to stop it from traveling further down range and disperse the propellant to reduce the size of the explosion.
- angersock 13y agoJavascript and PHP, mainly.
- eudox 13y agoI thought the Ariane was destroyed by aerodynamic forces?