Technology · 1
NASA's Mariner 1 probe, destroyed by a coding error shortly after its 1962 launch, had been aimed at which planet?
Answer
Venus
Mariner 1 was designed to fly past Venus and study its atmosphere, but the mission ended seconds into launch due to a guidance software defect.
💡 Did you know?
A single misplaced hyphen in Mariner 1's guidance code in 1962 caused a $18.5 million Venus probe to explode 293 seconds after launch.
Other options people guess
- Mars
- Mercury
- Jupiter
Topics
- space-history
- nasa
- planets
- 1960s
Know your technology trivia?
Play a free Technology quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Technology facts
Technology
What specific software error caused NASA's Mariner 1 probe to be destroyed just 293 seconds after its 1962 launch?
A single misplaced hyphen in Mariner 1's guidance code in 1962 caused a $18.5 million Venus probe to explode 293 seconds after launch.
Technology
GeoCities organized its millions of user homepages into themed 'neighborhoods' based on content type. Which of these was an actual GeoCities neighborhood dedicated to technology and computing topics?
GeoCities divided the web into themed neighborhoods (SiliconValley, Broadway, etc.), making 38 million user homepages feel like a digital city before Yahoo deleted it all in 2009.
Technology
Which country launched the first national web index in 1993, allowing citizens to search domestically hosted websites before most countries had any organised web directory?
Finland was the first country in the world to declare broadband internet access a legal right for all citizens, doing so in 2010.
Technology
The QWERTY keyboard layout has remained the dominant standard for English-language keyboards for roughly how long, despite the mechanical problem it was designed to solve no longer existing?
The QWERTY keyboard layout was deliberately designed to slow typists down and prevent mechanical typewriter jams—a problem that hasn't existed for decades.
Technology
Jeff Bezos incorporated Amazon in 1994 and launched it online in 1995. In which U.S. state was his now-famous garage startup located?
Amazon's 1995 launch sold its first book—a computer science text—to a friend of founder Jeff Bezos, who packed it himself in a garage.
Technology
When Yahoo acquired GeoCities in 1999 for approximately $3.57 billion, what happened to the platform's roughly 38 million user homepages when Yahoo shut it down a decade later?
GeoCities divided the web into themed neighborhoods (SiliconValley, Broadway, etc.), making 38 million user homepages feel like a digital city before Yahoo deleted it all in 2009.