[jdiez17]

Well, it's true that it should be designed such that they cannot be plugged incorrectly. I would imagine it is indeed mostly designed in that way, but there can still be erroneous configurations that were not accounted for at the design stage.

Especially during testing you're often dealing with custom cables connectors and circuits that are different from the "normal configuration".

I would say that the lesson is to do as many critical operations under the 4-eye principle: someone is doing the thing, someone else is checking each step before continuing. Very effective for catching "stupid mistakes" like the one in the article. But again, it is not always possible to have two people looking at one test, especially with timeline pressure etc. So mistakes like these do happen in the real world. You have to make the whole system robust.

[dheera]

> Well, it's true that it should be designed such that they cannot be plugged incorrectly

I agree with you, but on Earth this is easy. For spacecraft I imagine you can't just use any connector from Digikey

> especially with timeline pressure etc.

If timeline pressure, lost sleep, or rushing jobs not meant to be rushed causes a catastrophic technical error to be made, it is 100% the fault of the person who imposed the timeline, whether that be some middle manager, vice president, board, investor, or whoever. Emphatically NOT the engineer who did the work, if they do good work when not under time pressure.

HOLD PEOPLE LIABLE for rushing engineers and technicians to do jobs that require patience and time to do right.

[jdiez17]

I agree that individuals shouldn't be held responsible for mistakes like this.

However, you can't always eliminate timeline pressure. Even if the project is planned and executed perfectly, there will almost always be unknown unknowns encountered along the way that can push your timeline back. As is the case with sending things to Mars there is a window every two years. That's a very real, non-fictitious deadline that can't be worked around.

[dheera]

> As is the case with sending things to Mars there is a window every two years.

This is very simple to deal with.

(a) If it's unmanned, rush and launch on-time but don't fault the engineer for mistakes made by rushing. If it doesn't work everyone accept that as a consequence of rushing.

(b) If it's manned, wait until the next launch window and prioritize safety. Period.