# The Great Kersten Blunder: was it real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275 "2016-04-27T19:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/21 "2016-04-29T03:30:27Z")
In the mid-1980’s, long before there was widespread public access to the Internet (and long before there was much there other than plain-text documents), there was a document kicking around on Usenet called “Famous Bugs”. It was a compendium of smaller discussions that had been kicking around about noteworthy software bugs of the era. You can find this document on-line to this day at [http://www.discord.org/~lippard/misc/famous-bugs.txt](http://www.discord.org/~lippard/misc/famous-bugs.txt) and perhaps other places too. The above-mentioned story about the FORTRAN punctuation error mentioned there. I think some version of the hyphen story is there too. Here’s a good one: > [@Famous Bugs Document](#): > > faulk@nrl-css (who got it elsewhere) > > ``` > Today, I heard good story that is a perfect example of the problems > > ``` > > that can arise whe the assumptions that one module makes about another > are not properly documented. (The story is from a system engineer here > whose father got it from the Smithsonian Space people.) > > ``` > Aparently, the Jupiter(?) probe to mars could have programs beamed to > > ``` > > it which it would load in internal memory. The system engineers used this > property to make mission changes and/or corrections. After the probe had > been on Mars for a while, memory started getting tight. One of the > engineers had the realization that they no longer needed the module that > controled the landing so the space could be used for something else. The > probe was sent a new program that overwrote the landing module. As soon as > this was accomplished, all contact was lost to the probe. > > ``` > Looking back into the code to find what had gone wrong, the programmers > > ``` > > discovered that because the landing module had to have information on > celestial navigation, some or all of the celestial navigation functions > were inclded in the landing module. Unfortunately, the antenna pointing > module also required celestial navigation information to keep the antenna > pointed at earth. To do this, it use the navigation functions in the > landing module. Overlaying the module has left the antenna pointing in some > unknown direction and all contact with the craft has been lost forever. > > ``` > Fortunately, all of the mission requirements had been fulfilled so it > > ``` > > was no great loss. It can live on as a great example of bad design. This document is a fun read. You can see what “famous bugs” were “going viral” in those days. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/22 "2016-09-05T17:04:53Z")
Article about “Kersten Blunder” myth [Urban legend about a Venus probe lost due to unit conversion error.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/09/05/urban_legend_about_a_venus_probe_lost_due_to_unit_conversion_error.html) that cites this thread (!) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/23 "2016-09-05T18:55:19Z")
Not too surprising, since Phil Plait used to post here. I guess he still lurks occasionally (Hi, Phil!). ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/24 "2016-09-05T20:00:33Z")
Just came across this thread from Phil’s article. It seems it was **Troutman’s** inquiry to him that made him aware of this, and sadly not his lurking. I’d love if he was still active here, but he’s a busy bad astronomer these days. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/25 "2016-09-05T21:16:17Z")
As so often happens, xkcd has beaten us all to the punch. Or the cite in this case. 😃 > **[Citogenesis](https://xkcd.com/978/)** > > I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to ... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author. But in this case we’re now part of the citogenesis process. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/26 "2016-09-05T23:49:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not too surprising, since Phil Plait used to post here. I guess he still lurks occasionally (Hi, Phil!). Even less surprising seeing as **TroutMan** sent the email to Phil that prompted him to write the article. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275/27 "2016-09-06T14:42:30Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Even less surprising seeing as **TroutMan** sent the email to Phil that prompted him to write the article. Yeah, Phil emailed me a month ago back asking if he could use my name. At least his searching had already led him to this thread, so we can all imagine he comes back to check on us every now and then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275.md?page=1)