Some old MCO commentary from Federation of American Scientists... Nat http://www.fas.org/mars/991008-mars20.htm TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP TITLE=NASA'S BIG METRIC MISTAKE NUMBER=6-11508 BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration -- NASA - s being widely criticized for a colossal blunder that resulted in the loss of an expensive Mars space probe. The space agency was using metric measurements in the plans for the probe, which was designed to report back to Earth on the Martian climate. However, spacecraft's builder, the Lockheed Martin company, used standard, non-metric U-S measurements, such as feet and inches. Neither group realized the discrepancy until the probe disappeared late last month. Since the mistake, there has been a drumbeat of editorials in the nation's press about how such a fundamental mistake could go unchecked through the entire design and construction phase of the 125- million-dollar space vehicle. _______________ joins us now with a sampling in today's U-S Opinion Roundup. TEXT: The spacecraft was being fed instructions by radio from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on September 23rd when ground controllers suddenly lost all contact with it. It was only then that they realized the craft had gone much closer to the Martian surface than they told it to, and that was when the metric-versus-English measurement discrepancy was discovered. Since then, many papers have complained about the loss to taxpayers of such a large amount of money from such a stupid mistake. Here's some of what U-S-A Today thinks about the fiasco, and, more importantly, its broader implications for the nation. VOICE: Now that NASA scientists have squandered 125-million dollars, not to mention a cherished opportunity to explore Mars, by failing to make sure everyone involved used metric measurements, here's a quiz: Who is about to waste billions of dollars and thousands of jobs on the same mistake? Answer: The whole country -- unless NASA's blunder wakes everyone up. While just about every other nation on the planet has converted to metric's meters, liters and grams, the United States has steadfastly clung to its feet, gallons and pounds. The result is not just the occasional multimillion-dollar space disaster, but an everyday drag on our economy. The U-S is, in effect, imposing a trade barrier on its own goods, since products made to English measurements don't fit well in a metric world, and vice versa. And this barrier will get higher as time goes by. TEXT: The Chicago Tribune couches its criticism in some sarcasm with this headline: "Oops! You Mean It Wasn't Metric?" VOICE: // OPT // Americans traveling by car in Canada sometimes get fooled by the road signs. They think, for example, that they're 50 miles from their destination, when in fact they're a mere 50 kilometers. That's kind of like what happened to NASA scientists ... on a more, ah, cosmic scale. In this case, they thought some measurements were in metric units when in fact they were in English ones. That's hardly a disaster if you're on the highway ... but it's a jaw-dropping, 125-million-dollar disaster if you're charting a course to Mars, which they were. // END OPT // In what has to be one of the most boneheaded [extraordinarily stupid] mistakes in the history of the U-S space program, engineers at the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which built the Mars climate Orbiter, apparently provided NASA scientists with figures on the orbiter's thrust in pound- seconds, an English unit, but the folks at NASA thought they were in newtons, a metric measure. That little misunderstanding put the spacecraft off course by only about 96-and-one-half- kilometers of its slightly more than 669- million-kilometer-trip, but it was a critical 96 kilometers . Nobody knows for sure what happened to it, but it's sure not where it's supposed to be. // OPT // Maybe it crashed on Mars or was burned up, or maybe it's orbiting the sun ... // END OPT // What we do know is that somehow the scientists and engineers responsible ... seem to have neglected fundamental procedures they should have learned in high school, if not earlier. TEXT: Glancing at the calendar, The [Baltimore] Sun finds some expensive irony in this latest problem with the U-S space program. VOICE: What a way to celebrate National Metric Week: The nation's space agency loses a 125- million dollar spacecraft ... because some engineers-like too many other Americans-cling to old-fashioned measurements abandoned by the rest of the world. ... Public protests and protectionist lawmakers have blocked government efforts in Washington to "go metric." So it is with chagrin and irony that we soon will enter National Metric Week, October 10th through October 16th. Perhaps every math class in America can observe the occasion by discussing NASA's fiasco and why meters should replace yards in their classrooms. TEXT: Finally, along the same lines as The Sun, [Jacksonville] Florida's Times-Union is equally exasperated, noting: VOICE: Advocates of metric conversion in the United States are rightly saying "I told you so" in light of the failed Mars Climate Orbiter. ... The costly mix-up over English and metric measurements is what can happen with the United States being out of step with the rest of the world on metric use. Metric is the standard measure for 95 percent of the planet. "A stupid error like that could have been avoided if we had been on the metric system," said Valerie Antoine, executive director of the U-S Metric Association. "This is a very good reason Congress had better get busy and mandate we go metric." ... The metric issue, whether Americans like it or not, is clearly not going away. After the fiasco in the Martian sky, it's time to get in sync with the rest of the world. TEXT: That concludes this rather uncomplimentary self- criticism of our inability to come to terms with the metric system of measurements, from the U-S press, after one of the biggest mistakes in the U-S space program. NEB/ANG/WTW 08-Oct-1999 16:39 PM EDT (08-Oct-1999 2039 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America
