Comment by Terr_

Yeah, certainly a reason to have failsafe timers and dead-man switches when testing new things.

While I did read The Expanse, when I think of that class of dangers, what pops to my mind is an old short story Neutron Star (1966) [0]. A financially desperate pilot is hired to discover what killed some researchers while leaving the indestructible starship hull intact... and the thrusters off.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_Star_(short_story)