"Squyres is 'not embarrassed at all' about the slip-up with the rovers. 'It was an easy mistake to make,' he says. 'It happened during some very busy and stressful times.' He also says it is not fair to compare it to past mishaps because the spacecraft suffered no damage. 'There isn't going to be an investigation. We know when it happened,' he says. 'There was a point when both of them were sitting on the same bench, and that has to have been it.'"
This is great stuff. "Not embarrassed at all"? If so, Squyres is clearly an idiot. It's very true that the MER rovers are an unqualified success and a boon for robotic Mars exploration, but what's wrong with displaying a little humility if you fuck up?
And wouldn't it be great if all of us could use Squyres' "stressful times" excuse whenever we botch something important?
2 comments:
I thought we could blame errors on stressful times? This sounds similar to a software bug which is then patched, and I don't think that people should have to feel embarrassed for not being perfect. But when it comes to mixing up metrical and imperial units, Americans are free to feel embarrassed for still using imperial units. :) (Especially since that error apparently cost a spacecraft, which I assume is a much bigger deal than having to adjust data.) Though, if it was so easy to mix the two rovers up, perhaps they should've labelled them with stickers? ;)
Simply put, this was a *really* dumb mistake. I'm not out for Squyres' head, but come on -- fess up. It's good for PR. Perhaps the two units never should have been "on the same bench" to begin with.
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