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Comment by jarenmf | Hacker News Reader

> It was believed the capsule fell through the gap left by a bolt hole, after the bolt was dislodged when a container collapsed as a result of vibrations during the trip.

You would imagine someone have thought of this failure mode

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Someone absolutely did, and wrote controls for it, down to the calibration of the torque wrench.

Just as they thought of the failure modes of:

  - cold fluoropolymers in rocket boosters
  - graphite moderated water cooled reactors
  - live ammunition on movie sets
  - insurance products assuming uncorrelated risks in a correlated market
  - etc

All of these things were known and controlled risks long before the event that realised them happened.

These have been used and regularly replaced since the 1970s and this is the first time one has been lost in transit.

Yes, they can do better and hopefully will do so in the future with more rules, regulations and checks.

But, see [1] - you'd imagine someone would have thought about the front of an oil tanker falling off.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker)

the front fell off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

I just want to point out to others that the above is parody.

Yes it's deliberate exaggeration for comic effect of the simple bald fact that the front fell off of the bloody oil tanker.

But couldn't they add some sort of sensor to detect when the front falls off?

I knew what this was before I clicked. I've watched it a million times. I watched it again. These guys were comedic geniuses.

Only if their job depended on it. For some people, their jobs mostly depend on following orders, official policy & "best-practices". The job reward is not directly related to the organization's or society's desired outcome. Codified rules and "best-practices" cannot cover everything important. Wisdom & truth are ineffable but sometimes people pretend that everything can be codified, but if that were the case, everything can be done with robots and computers.

"Mate, you worry too much. Bazza said he done the bolt real good this time. She'll be right."

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