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Another (probable) software failure due to unexpected scenario was the Mars polar lander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Polar_Lander#Loss_of_commu...

The failure review concluded that the probable cause of loss was that the landing system software apparently interpreted the deployment of lander's legs as touchdown and shut down the descent engines. The vibrations caused by the deployment of the legs was not taken into account when designing the software.



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