Dear All, i watched the landing live in the Wednesday morning hours from a California Pacific time zone. i am very glad that the shuttle has made a safe return.
however it was not just a little bit befuddling to hear pre-metric expressions such as 'miles-per-hour' and 'feet' and or 'miles' on the NASA channel descriptions of the shuttle descent. i think that expressions of length (or distance) in terms of the meter or kilometer, or expressions of velocity in terms of meters-per-second; would have easily been more appropriate units for communicating the status of the landing to viewers of the NASA channel. from not only an American perspective but also a global perspective, metric is better than pre-metric! i should certainly hope that NASA can communicate without any dictate for pre-metric. cheers, and best regards, Ron On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 7:53 PM, Kilopascal <[email protected]> wrote: > The days of America leading in space travel is over. The US can not > afford it on its own. If travel out into space is to continue, it will have > to be a world-wide effort. It is too costly for one country to do it alone, > especially one on the verge of national bankruptcy. The French are very > clever. They put their efforts and money into launching satellites and > continue to profit financially from it. If NASA is to survive, it will have > operate for profit, or else it will cease to exist. NASA's decision not to > metricate is one of the many problems that will assure that NASA continues > to decline at the expense of more profitable companies in the US and the > world. > > The problem is the rest of the world isn't interested in manned space > flights. They don't see the benefits of such costly adventures. If the > solution to mankind's resource problems could be found on the Moon, Mars, > the moons of Jupiter, etc., then the motivation will be there. But not in > our life times. > > Hopefully when this does happen the international partners will insist on > full use of SI units in all activities. > > [USMA:49985] Re: Discovery touchdown > > Paul Trusten > Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:37:40 -0800 > > I was celebrating the courage of America's space pilots, 15 of which died in > the line of duty and 10 of which visited the moon. I hope one day to hear of > some of them crossing the expanses of the solar system and continuing to do > the > things "not because they are easy, but because they are hard." > > Paul Trusten, R.Ph. > Registered Pharmacist > Vice President and Public Relations Director > U.S. Metric Association, Inc. > Midland, Texas USwww.metric.org > +1(432)528-7724 > [email protected] > > > > On Mar 9, 2011, at 19:20, "Kilopascal" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Are you happy because the USC dinosaur is finally dead and will be buried? > > Is there anything metric to replace it? > > > > > > [USMA:49983] Discovery touchdown > > > > Paul Trusten > > Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:59:51 -0800 > > > > TOUCHDOWN, and a dance in the endzone! BRAVO! > > -- -------------------- Ron Stone ------------------------- disclaimers or other restrictions may apply to this message. ------------------------------------
