You can’t do space travel without software, Mars is too far away to use remote control, like a pilot flying a drone. The light-travel time alone makes it it impossible. But a half million lines of code that has never been tested all at once under real conditions is scary. Would you put your money in a bank with that philosophy?

Still, Nasa has done it before. Let’s just hope they only use software where it is absolutely necessary, not just because it is cheaper or easier or because their engineers can’t think of any other way to do it.

The Apollo 11 Landing is a good example of what can go wrong with a relatively simple system.

The more recent loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter highlights how a simple but glaring oversight can lead to catastrophe.

NASA publicizes its missions extensively before they are carried out, when the possibility of humiliating failure is still very real. That is something, as an American, I am intensely proud of.