Dear Jim, Thanks for the links. I have checked them and I have interspersed some remarks.
on 2002-11-15 09.18, Jim Elwell at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > At 11/15/2002, 09:05 AM, Pat Naughtin wrote: > >> on 2002-11-14 03.08, Jim Elwell at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> >> <snip> >>> "Another area for experimental economics has to do with NASA. We worked >> on the >>> Cassini mission [which in 1997 sent 800 pounds of scientific >> instruments on a >>> small spacecraft to Saturn to conduct experiments]. We used a trading >> system >>> to allocate the resources that each separate experiment got to use on >> board. >> <snip> >> >> I know that this is a complete red herring but it is interesting that NASA >> chose to report the mass of the scientific experiments as "800 pounds". >> >> How long is it going to take for NASA to realise the cost of the Mars >> Climate Orbiter? > > I was quoting Vernon Smith from an interview in a political magazine, so I > don't think we can presume that the spacecraft was designed in inch-pound > units. At least some of the press releases were clearly done in metric. See > > http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-releases-97/19971015-pr-b.cfm >From the way this news release was written I suspect that the writer was working from SI units, translating to foot-pound units, and then placing these into parentheses. > Also, the craft launched in 1997, which is before the Mars Orbiter fiasco > (if memory serves). This is true, but I think that NASA had already 'gone metric' and if a project wanted to use old units they required a special approval. However, while this might have been true for the engineering departments it did not impinge on the public relations department. Given that "Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency" I doubt that the approval for using old units was even sought. > Finally, this is an international project. From > http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm: Fascinating stuff. Thanks again for the links. Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS Geelong, Australia
