Congrats NASA on the Pluto flyby! Could you write software today, guarantee that it works flawlessly in 2024, and only get one try? And also make sure the hardware works?

The New Horizons spacecraft has just flown to Pluto and snapped gorgeous pictures. Great work, NASA! The mission started over 9 years ago, and technically, the flyby is a stunning achievement in technology.

As a software developer, I cannot help but think the challenges in writing code for the spacecraft. You need to get it written ten years before the ultimate test, and you have only very limited update possibilities for the software once craft has gone to space.

Could you write code today, and make sure it works just fine in 2024? Requires real skill to do that, considering that you need to rely on hardware that has just travelled about three billion miles.