doing the math for you since 1994
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The Power of Ten: A Decade of Wisdom in Safety-Critical Coding
In the vast and often perilous world of software engineering, where a single misplaced semicolon can doom a Mars mission or crash a nuclear reactor, the need for stringent coding standards is as critical as the systems they govern. Enter Gerard J. Holzmann’s “Power of Ten”—a compact yet draconian set of rules designed to keep…
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Mission 2024 YR4: Saving Earth (or Just Having a Cosmic Road Trip) with JPL’s Mission Design Tool
The Cosmic Panic Button Every now and then, humanity is graced with the thrilling news that an asteroid might—just might—have our little blue planet in its celestial crosshairs. Enter 2024 YR4, a near-Earth asteroid making waves in the headlines with a non-zero chance of impact in 2032. Naturally, this has led to an avalanche of…
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The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Science: When Gigantic Budgets Meet Reluctant Goodbyes
The Reluctance to Let Go Science is a beautiful, relentless pursuit of truth, but it is also expensive—astronomically so, in some cases. The sunk cost fallacy, a well-known cognitive bias, is not just the domain of gamblers at the poker table or hopeless romantics in doomed relationships. It is alive and well in the realm…
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Debris Trajectories from Starship 7 Test Flight
The seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship ended prematurely on January 16, 2025, with an explosion of the upper stage (Ship 33) over the Turks and Caicos Islands. When an event like this occurs, accurately predicting the trajectory of debris is crucial for public safety, environmental impact assessment, and scientific inquiry. This article explores the…
