Human error caused Mars orbiter's loss: NASA

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Human error was at the root of the loss in November of the Mars Global Surveyor that had orbited the red planet for nine years, NASA said Friday.

An error in programming of the onboard computer memory in June 2006 led to a battery failure in the spacecraft, according to a preliminary investigation by an internal NASA review board.

"The loss of the spacecraft was the result of a series of events linked to a computer error made five months before the likely battery failure," said board chairwoman Dolly Perkins, an official at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration lost contact with the orbiter on November 2 after the spacecraft was ordered to perform a routine adjustment...