Case Study: Schiaparelli (EXOMARS lander) failure

EXOMARS is a success (the orbiter is up and running, since 2016) but the experimental lander, failed spectacularly (and the crater where it landed was already located at Mars)... Why was that?
Because of hardware, and also of software:

"The following main weaknesses in the overall process led to the failure of the landing of Schiaparelli:
• Lack of specification and focus on a mission critical parameter from Prime to Supplier. The
persistence of the saturation flag in the application software, became the ultimate cause of the
Schiaparelli landing mishap.
• Lack of rigorous verification approach (including testing of failure/anomaly cases and
recording of closure of requirements).
• Lack of PA/QA rigorousness for acceptance of the unit"

"The following root causes for the mishap have been identified:

- Insufficient uncertainty and configuration management in the modelling of the parachute
dynamics which led to expect much lower dynamics than observed in flight;
- Inadequate persistence time of the IMU saturation flag and inadequate handling of IMU
saturation by the GNC;
- Insufficient approach to Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery and design robustness;
- Mishap in management of subcontractors and acceptance of hardware."

Source: EXOMARS 2016 - SCHIAPARELLI ANOMALY INQUIRY
More info:
http://exploration.esa.int/mars/59176-exomars-2016-schiaparelli-anomaly-inquiry/
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40029180


PS. Kudos to A. Santos for pointing this out.

Case Study: EXOMARS TGO

What if you were to work for a mission that aims to find life on another planet?
Could you do it from Portugal?
Could you do it using agile methodologies for ESA?
What deliverables were you to deliver to your contractor?
On what language would you have to work on? And on what programming language?
How many time would it take per sattelite module and what statistics would it involve (#reqs to implement, #LOC, etc.)?

Tomorrow (2016-03-14) it's the launch of the first phase of the work of years here at Critical Software. At 9:31 from Casakhistan.

• https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/13/exomars-giant-nose-life-on-mars-prepares-launch
• https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2016/mar/11/is-there-life-on-mars-exomars-trace-gas-orbiter-takes-up-the-search

Answers on a follow up. One of these days.