The Ariane rocket family is a series of rockets made in Europe by the work of France, The UK and Germany to launch satellites into space. From 1979-1996 the Ariane series was a successes totaling up to 81 with Ariane 4(A4)being the most successful.”It took the European Space Agency(ESA) 10 years and $7 billion to produce Ariane 5”(“A bug and a crash”). On June,4th1996 39 seconds after launch of the Ariane 5(A5) exposed as a result of of an exception raised was not handled trying to convert a 64-bit floating point to a 16-bit signed integer. I am going to go over the ethical decision, how it relates to ACM/SE code of ethics, The effect this had on the future of Ariane rockets, and what I would have done. The Ariane 5 was heavily based on …show more content…
This is where the European Space Agency(ESA) and it’s programmer's failed to hold to the code strateded. Using the SE code of ethics: “1.03. Approve software only if they have a well-founded belief that it is safe, meets specifications, passes appropriate tests, and does not diminish quality of life, diminish privacy or harm the environment. The ultimate effect of the work should be to the public good.”(“SE code of ethics”) The ESA didn’t do proper testing by reason of it work for the A4 so they thought it would work for the A5. They approve software not know if it would work for the A5 based on poor logic. The ESA cutting corrons to save money shows the management and where just looking to make a new rocket as fast and cheaply as possible without thinking of the risks. “5.01 Ensure good management for any project on which they work, including effective procedures for promotion of quality and reduction of risk.” (“SE code of ethics”). Which leads me to believe that they were not thinking of the public interests and more of the bondholders. “1.02. Moderate the interests of the software engineer, the employer, the client and the users with the public good”.(“SE code of ethics”) If they were to follow at least some of the SE code of ethics the launch of the A5 would have gone off as