Lethal earthquakes are common in Turkey, which lies on the North Anatolian fault, and the nation constantly fears another devastating earthquake.

CNN: Turkish quake victims brave cold

One, Mars Climate Orbiter, had a particularly humiliating crash, because the fault lay with a group of engineers who, in defiance of common sense, had continued to use imperial units of measurement in their calculations when all around had adopted the metric system.

ECONOMIST: Exploring Mars