The official report did its best to avoid "laying blame." However, my reading of it implied that the contract required metric and Lockheed Martin failed to either meet the terms of the contract or inform NASA. If my reading is correct, they should have been hit for the entire cost of the mission. However, unlike automotive purchasing contracts, I don't think NASA's T&Cs cover contingent liability.
--- On Sat, 6/27/09, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote: From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:45276] RE: No mention of the metric system To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 3:06 AM That document attributes the Mars Polar Lander Spacecraft, 1999 accident to “landing control logic / software design error”. The so-called design error was in fact a specification error and therefore outside the control of the software engineer. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 26 June 2009 08:28 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45272] No mention of the metric system Dear All, Apparently if you put your mind to it, you can analyse space accidents without mentioning the metric system at all. See http://www.congrex.nl/08a11/presentations/day2_S22/S22_04_Guarro.pdf Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide. PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA . Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada , the UK , and the USA . See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
