an abstract from UPI

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

If we had built telephone systems this way we would have been shot.

Dave

 PASADENA, Calif. (UPI) -- A batch of faulty transistors were suspected
Thursday as the possible cause of NASA's failed Mars Observer
spacecraft, which appeared lost in space despite intensive efforts to
revive it.
        Officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued a statement
saying transistors installed in the spacecraft's central clock -- which
amounts to the satellite's heart -- were from a batch from which other
transistors proved defective.
        The same kind of transistors failed in a weather satellite before its
scheduled June launch, NASA said.
        ``Because of the way these transistors are used in the (central
clock), Mars Observer would be susceptible to losing its central clock
function if one particular transistor in each half of the (central
clock) failed,'' NASA said in the statement.

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