Open Source Summit + ELC North America 2020

This talk covers how software is used in space missions focusing on the four most high profile failures, and mission rescues. Ariane 5, Cassini Huygens, Mars Polar Lander, and Spirit Rover. These were all struck down by lack of testing, software not being switched off when it was no longer required, failure to understand metric and imperial conversion, and race conditions writing to memory. While these had catastrophic results in two of these, the other two were rescued through a combination of brute force, raw ingenuity, and brilliant innovation. This talks will cover each of the space missions and discuss how the lessons learnt can and should be applied to day to day programing and testing and architecture of all software packages, especially as shops rush to move to adopt agile results without fully understanding the risks.

This talk is of value to developers, managers, testers, technical writers, and everyone who has worked on or around a software project, and through storytelling and examples it tries to make the audience think about mistakes they have made, short cuts they are making, and to create better software for the world we live in as well as beyond