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stetrainyesterday at 5:01 AM2 repliesview on HN

So the risk factor for Apollo could have actually been 1/1000 but they were just really unlucky?


Replies

shashyesterday at 3:10 PM

Yes, actually. This is similar to having a 100 year flood five years in a row. It doesn’t mean that the flood occurs only once in 100 years. _On average_ it’s 1/100 probability of occurring in any given year.

But then, Apollo 1 was after all the first mission on the Saturn V. I think we should assess even its pre-launch risk much higher than the rest of them. Similarly Artemis II has a much higher risk than the subsequent ones will have.

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d1sxeyesyesterday at 10:53 AM

If I toss a coin four times and it comes up heads three and tails once, it doesn’t mean that there’s a 75% chance that this coin lands heads up. Be careful about conflating risk factor and mortality rate.

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