That's why you need contracts as I mentionedThe problem is that those errors are hard to find, e.g. when two well-tested parts of code don't work together and you're left with no clue why.
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars- ... er-report/
Is NASA can get it wrong, what can we say about the somewhat more humble NumPy and SciPy?
The whole thing could be written off as a miscommunication. Propulsion engineers, like those at Lockheed Martin who built the craft, typically express force in pounds, but it was standard practice to convert to newtons for space missions. One pound of force is about 4.45 newtons. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab assumed the conversion had been made, and didn't check.
But there was an underlying issue in the culture of NASA's space exploration at the time, Cook said.