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#hakuto-r#softwarebug#spacecraft

Why Japan's Moon Lander Crashed Due to An Unbelievable Computer Bug

Scott Manley

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  • Presented by Scott Manley, space science communicator

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907K views3 years ago1 recommendation

Systems programmingHardwareEmbedded systemsTesting

Scott Manley explains how a software failover bug caused Japan's Hakuto-R moon lander to ignore its sensors and crash.

The investigation into why the Hakuto-R lander crashed into the moon last month after an otherwise perfect mission has revealed the answer: The software encountered unexpected terrain and didn't believe what the sensors were showing, so it started ignoring them. iSpace Report ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4691 LROC images of the crash site: lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1302 Follow me on Twitter for more updates: twitter.com/DJSnM I have a discord server where I regularly turn up: discord.gg/zStmKbM If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon patreon.com/scottmanley

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What people say. Recommended for its clear explanation of the software bug and sensor logic that led to the lander's crash.

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u/dist1llin r/programming • Recommends

On “Japan's Moon Lander Crashed Due to a Software Bug (Scott Manley)”

You can skip to 3:44 for the explanation. They implemented a software-side failover for incorrect altimeter readings. I wouldn't call it an "unbelievable bug", although I'm surprised their backup system performed so poorly. Maybe a space engineer can weigh in on this?
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