NASA's "reason" (i.e., excuse) for this is that the STS program was
designed in "English", before the big 1988 almost-conversion of the
government. They claim it would be too costly to change all the
software and training manuals to SI.
Actually, to some extent, I'm sympathetic. I've been involved in
detailed operating procedure revisions and test plan revisions for the
Naval Nuclear Propulsion program and it really IS a tedious and
error-risking event to change the way something is measured. Unless one
has been involved in something of this scale, the magnitude of the job
cannot be appreciated. I reckon that the scope of the STS program
design and U.S. nuclear submarine design are comparable in extent and
complexity.
What really frosts my cake though is the adamant refusal of the PAOs at
JSC to express all the units in SI in their press releases. There is
absolutely no mission risk involved in doing that. That's one of the
points I am making in the letter I'm about to reproduce and distribute,
in response to the NASA IG's letter and NASA Administration's response.
I'm sure they have filters at the JSC PAO office by now that
automatically transfer my emails to the trash. Robert, please blow off
steam at them about not -- at least -- converting those arcane units to
SI so we can all understand them. A pointed question for them. If they
use "statute [survey] miles" instead of "regular miles", then do they
use "survey feet" (= [1200/3937] m) instead of "normal feet" (= 0.3048
m)? Sometimes they use nautical miles. How many nautical feet is that?
;-)
Jim
On Saturday 10 March 2001 1633, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 2001 March 10
> NASA has done it again. The shuttle docked to the space station last
> night. They used feet and feet per second. No metric. The crews
> talked in feet. The public announcer used feet. The digital display
> in the control room of the
> approach showed feet: distance and speed: 402.5 and -5.13 with no
> units shown. The public announcer added the units in reading the
> numbers. Pity the poor Russian crew. NASA serves them badly.
>
> It seems that when NASA says they use SI they mean that somewhere in
> NASA they may use SI but they do not mean they use no inch-pound.
>
> Maybe we should have less talk of "Use SI" and instead say "Never
> use inch-pound."
> Or go another way. Say "Always use SI". Perhaps Congress should
> stop saying
> "SI is preferred" and say "Always use SI".
> Robert Bushnell
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
