2001-12-30 So, why isn't L-M being sued for the damages?
Also, if L-M built the unit in "metric" to begin with, why would they later supply data in non-metric? Somehow this shows this company has poor record keeping and/or poor internal communications. Or maybe a disgruntled employee who wanted to do some sabotage. Anything is possible. But, this is an incident that should not have been buried under the carpet and forgotten. L-M should be made to pay damages. If this was the private sector, they would be in court by now. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James R. Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2001-12-30 10:54 Subject: [USMA:16936] Re: Conversion sites > That's not quite it either, Joe. NASA was going to send up signals to > the MCO to burn certain engines for a certain number of seconds. To > calculate those times, they needed data from L-M in the form of computer > files. The contract specified that those files would be in metric units. > L-M supplied the data but in non-metric equivalent units. Since the > computer files contained only numbers, this was not apparent to NASA, > who took the numbers to be metric quantities. The engine firings were > conducted on those unconverted numbers and that put MCO off course. > > A simplified analogy would be this. Assume NASA asked L-M how much to > change in velocity of the MCO was needed. L-M provides the number 10 > [feet per second] and NASA interprets that as 10 [meters per second] > because the contract said that meters per second were the specified > units. Note that L-M merely says "10" and NASA hears "10", but both are > thinking in terms of different units. The result would be that the > orbiter would be given orders to change velocity by about 3.3 times as > much as it should have. L-M was culpable because the contract specified > the use of (certain) metric units for the provided data and they failed > to comply. > > AAAS probably toned down the wording in that article and mentioned only > NASA by name to keep from stirring up another round of finger-pointing > and yelling. > > Jim > > "Joseph B. Reid" wrote: > > > > James Frysinger in USMA 16919 quoted Science magazine of December 21 as saying: > > : > > > In an epic snafu, the controllers of the Mars Climate > > > Orbiter failed to convert English units of force into > > > metric ones > > > > My understanding of the snafu was exactly the reverse of Science's. The > > NASA flight controllers ordered the Orbiter to make course corrections in > > newton seconds and the Orbiter, built by Lockheed Martin, interpreted the > > orders to be in pound-force seconds Hence the Orbiter over-reacted. > > > > Joseph B.Reid > > 17 Glebe Road West > > Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071 > > -- > Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" > James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ > 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789 >
