ESA's Schiaparelli Mars probe crashed because of integer overflow

[Timon Gehr via Digitalmars-d]

On 24.11.2016 20:49, qznc wrote:
> Although, the article [0] does not say that literally, it sounds like an
> integer overflow:
>
>> After trawling through mountains of data, the European Space Agency
>> said Wednesday that while much of the mission went according to plan,
>> a computer that measured the rotation of the lander hit a maximum
>> reading, knocking other calculations off track.
>
>> That led the navigation system to think the lander was much lower than
>> it was, causing its parachute and braking thrusters to be deployed
>> prematurely.
>
>> "The erroneous information generated an estimated altitude that was
>> negative—that is, below ground level," the ESA said in a statement.
>
> That is why we need CheckedInt, folks. Reminder End. ;)
>
>
> [0] http://phys.org/news/2016-11-glitch-blamed-european-mars-lander.html

I don't think overflow is what happened. Rather, the statistical model 
they used to filter the sensor data didn't match reality. It put too 
much trust into a malfunctioning sensor -- I assume the sensor readings 
were extremely implausible.