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Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

Posted October 22, 2009 3:46 PM

From Gizmodo:

Mars. There have to be little green men with ACME weapons living there. Or we have some incredibly bad luck when it comes to sending spacecrafts to the Red Planet. Most of them fail, for one reason or the other. Out of 42 missions, only 20 have succeeded. That's less than 50% chance of survival. And it gets worse: Of those, only eight were actually programmed to land on Mars, which is actually the theoretically difficult part. While the success rate increased after 1971, I would be very nervous if I were a budding astronaut wanting to go up there—and still, I wish I was that astronaut. Better go in style while trying to reach the glory, than staying down here, slowly turning to dust.

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Guest
#1

Re: Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

10/22/2009 11:08 PM

What a trashy piece! "Most" = 47.6%?

Out of 42 missions, only 20 have succeeded. That's less than 50% chance of survival.

OK - Who died?

This Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo is an idiot.

Guest
#2
In reply to #1

Re: Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

10/22/2009 11:11 PM

Sorry - correction:

What a trashy piece! "Most" = 52.4%? Still....

Guru

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: El Lago, Texas, USA
Posts: 2348
Good Answers: 51
#3

Re: Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

10/23/2009 3:36 PM

NEWSFLASH!!!

"Space flight is hard."

For NASA I count 14 good out of 19 tries = 74% successful. If that was a batting score the world would be amazed.

Associate

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 52
#4

Re: Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

10/24/2009 8:04 PM

...an ex-astronaut at our company reported a "one-in-74" odds of catastrophic "failure" and death.

__________________
...and the Devil said: "...yes, but it's a DRY heat..!"
Commentator

Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 86
#5

Re: Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate

10/26/2009 5:54 PM

hmmm...I wonder what the number crunchers would come up with before say Captain Cook, Columbus, or Marco Polo etc set sail.

These automated pre-programmed robots don't have spirit. They only 'auto correct' to predetermined information even if it's wrong. Nothing compared to human spirit trying to achieve a goal...Send those that are willing I say...(I'm not one of them though )

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