I would not trust those Backblaze stats.. A quick inspection of blackblaze storage pods indicates an improper(vertical) mounting method.
This vertical configuration would likely cause a premature failure rate for drives that are designed for side or horizontal(preferred) mounting configurations.
Disk drives drive mounted in this particular vertical configuration places abnormal amounts of thermal and mechanical related stress (the entire mass of drive+internal movements) on the SATA Power and Data connections (a condition they were never rated for).
Note: You can probably get away with this type fixed mount configurations(SATA+Power) for 2.5" SATA drives since they have significantly reduced mass (20x less)) per drive. I've designed many different types of drive bays(SCSI, SAS, etc) and would never consider stressing connectors in this manor.
In summary, The observed failure rate may be more indicative of an improper storage array design, rather than the drives themselves, which may have faster seek times, resulting in increased dynamic forces stressing the SATA connections over time.
The radiator fins of the RTG would have probably got stuck into the surface of dust of the comet. (I.E. Heaviest portion of SAT, center of gravity, and all that sort of stuff). Net result, even worse, no contact at all, as the now insulated radiator fins reach same temperature as heat source, generating virtually no electricity. And without backup solar panels, not contact at all.
IMHO, I 'm really beginning to Hate these nuke advocates who claim that Nuclear power is god's gift to man, when in fact is it is a curse that will plague humanity for thousands of years to some.
Why would the NSA hack US Government databases?
Tthe NSA supplied to our rivals (Russia, China), the method (network analyzer capturing the hack in action), and the means (sample code via core dump) to take over some very widely used Juniper routers. Once you have full control of the router, hacking any database traffic transiting through it is trivial.
As with all secrets, they are ephemeral (short lived), and one must be prepared for rivals to turn the tables.
Which the US did not prepare for.
Make sure your code does nothing gracefully.