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| In the case of the "worst" computer bug, there are obviously many contenders, some of which are tragic (they cost lives) and some of which are humorous, such as the 1989 case of the court computer in Paris, France, which targeted over 41,000 traffic offenders and issued them with summons for a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and deviant sexual practices. | There is one bug, however, which definitely caught the popular imagination and which certainly stands proud in the crowd. On 28th July, 1962, the Mariner I space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral on the beginning of its long voyage to Venus (from 1963 to 1973, Cape Canaveral was known as Cape Kennedy in honor of president John F. Kennedy). | |
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| The flight plan stated that after thirteen minutes a booster engine would accelerate the probe to 25,820 mph; after eighty days the probe's on-board computer would make any final course corrections; and after one hundred days, Mariner 1 would be in orbit around Venus taking radar pictures of the planet's surface through its thick cloud cover. | ||
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| However, only four minutes into the flight, Mariner I did an abrupt U-turn and plunged into the Atlantic ocean. The investigating team found that a logical negation operator had been accidentally omitted from the computer program in charge of controlling the rocket's engines. On the basis that the launch, including the probe, cost in the region of $10,000,000, this has to rank as one of the more expensive (and visible) bugs in the history of computing. (I'm glad I wasn't that programmer!) (See also The "first" computer bug.) | NOTE: Although some references say that Mariner 1 was heading for Mars, its itinerary definitely had Venus penned in at the top of the list (NASA does try to keep track of where they're attempting to send these things) -- trust us on this one, for we know whereof we speak. Mariners 1 and 2 were intended for Venus (only Mariner 2 made it there); Mariners 3 and 4 were aimed at Mars (only Mariner 4 got there); Mariner 5 returned to Venus, Mariners 6, 7, and 9 returned to Mars (Mariner 8 ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean); and Mariner 10 wended its way to Mercury by way of Venus. |
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| These notes are abstracted from the book Bebop BYTES Back (An Unconventional Guide to Computers) Copyright Information |
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