Title: Re: [USMA:35439] Re: Error concerning Space Shuttle
Dear Pierre,
My Dutch is not very good, but here is my rough translation of the website article below. Please don't quote me on this — as I said it is a 'rough' translation of:
8, 'Ruimtevaart' at http://www.wanadoo.nl/internet/specials/32067.html
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Geelong, Australia
##
8. Space travel
Following the space race of the 1970s, the USA and the Soviet Union decided on developing a manned space station that could commute between the Earth and an orbiting space station. The Americans suggested a shuttle that could fly in air as an aircraft and could also operate as a spacecraft.
However, in the early days of experimenting with the shuttle something went terribly wrong. The first shuttle had a fuel tank that could not hold enough fuel to go from the Earth to join the orbit of the space station. The cause of this was that computer programmers had used both nautical miles and English feet in their software code — the fuel tank was too small.
You might think that the knowledgeable space program managers might have learned from such an error. However, history was repeated when the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed on the surface of Mars. Engineers appear to have used both English and metric units to calculate the correct speed of the satellite relative to the motion of Mars. Their computer counted a metre as if it were three feet. There are now a lot of taxpayers dollars spread on the surface of Mars!
##
On 22/12/05 10:04 PM, "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This is the link to the error concerning thr Space Shuttle.
> It's the item number 8, 'Ruimtevaart' (Space Travel).
>
> http://www.wanadoo.nl/internet/specials/32067.html
>
> Han
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pierre Abbat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Sunday, 2005, December 18 16:04
> Subject: [USMA:35427] Re: Error concerning Space Shuttle
>
>
>> On Sunday 18 December 2005 08:30, Han Maenen wrote:
>>> I just read on the site of my provider Wanadoo an item about the first
>>> Space Shuttle. There was not enough fuel to reach a target during a
>>> flight.
>>> The cause of the error was a faulty computer program that confused feet
>>> and nautical miles. An entry of 1000 nautical miles could be interpreted
>>> by the computer as 1000 feet. Years later came the error with the Mars
>>> shuttle. I could not find it on http://www.wnadoo.co.uk.
> The item I read was in Dutch. I never heard about it before.
>
> Could you post the Dutch link? I'm sure it won't be too hard to understand;
> Dutch is the third closest language to English.
>
> phma
>
>
>
