NASA-Houston was the directing center for the Constellation program, not JPL.
---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:19:06 -0400 >From: "Kilopascal" <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [USMA:50101] NASA screws up dual labelling >To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, "U.S. Metric >Association" <[email protected]> >... > Who were the people behind the Constellation fiasco > that was canceled? Was that Houston or JPL? > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, 2011-03-19 11:32 > To: "Kilopascal" <[email protected]>; > <[email protected]>; "U.S. Metric Association" > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [USMA:50101] NASA screws up dual > labelling > > > Please don't confuse NASA-Houston and NASA public > information releases (mostly non-SI) with NASA-JPL > (mostly SI in design and operations internally)! > > > > ---- Original message ---- > >>Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:10:52 -0400 > >>From: "Kilopascal" <[email protected]> > >>Subject: [USMA:50101] NASA screws up dual > labelling > >>To: <[email protected]>, "U.S. Metric > Association" <[email protected]> > >> > >> It is crap like this comming out of NASA that > is the > >> main reason they are in serious trouble and > >> struggling to survive. The best thing to do > is to > >> pressure your Congressman to stop funding NASA > and > >> instead fund those private space industries > (the > >> ones that use metric in their internal designs) > and > >> hopefully with NASA gone so will go their > >> anti-metric pollution. > >> > >> [USMA:50101] NASA screws up dual labelling > >> > >> Bill Hooper > >> Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:31:57 -0700 > >> > >> A recent announcement from NASA botches an > attempt to show a distance in > >> kilometres and miles, then goes on to give other > data in miles only. Below, for > >> your interest, is an excerpt from the > announcement followed by my criticism and > >> analysis of the situation, which I sent to NASA. > >> > >> > >> Bill Hooper > >> Member, US Metric Association > >> www.metric.org > >> > >> > >> ============================================== > >> On Mar 18 , at 12:33 AM, NASA News Services > wrote: > >> > >> > Celebrating Mercury Orbit > >> > Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:00:00 -0500 > >> > > >> > ... The orbit insertion will place the > spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about > >> > Mercury with a 200 124 mile (STET) minimum > altitude. MESSENGER will be 28.67 > >> > million miles from the sun and 96.35 million > miles from Earth. Credit: > >> > NASA/Paul E. Alers > >> > > >> > >> There are two problems with your report the in > Messenger spacecraft's orbit > >> around Mercury: > >> > >> (1) It appears that you meant to write "200 km / > 124 miles" but you neglected > >> to enter the kilometres symbol after "200" Also, > there was no separator between > >> the two numbers to indicate that it was "one or > the other". > >> > >> Therefore, it appears that you have announced > that the minimum altitude was > >> "two hundred thousand, one hundred and > twentya**four miles" (200,124 miles)! > >> Although Americans generally write that with the > comma, many people use a space > >> instead of a comma (200 124 miles), and most > people recognize the space as > >> being just a simple separator in a SINGLE, long > number. > >> > >> and > >> > >> (2) While we are on the subject of units: Why is > it so hard to tell us the > >> distance to the sun and the distance to the earth > in kilometres in addition to > >> (or, better yet, in place of) the mile figure? > The distance to sun and earth, > >> respectively, can easily be written "46.13 > million km" and "155.0 million km". > >> Or one could take advantage of the simplicity of > the SI metric system and > >> report it as "46.13 Gm" and "155.0 Gm" (The > symbol "Gm" stands for gigametres, > >> where a gigmetre is one million kilometres.) > >> > >> While I admit that there are many people "out > there" who are not sufficiently > >> familiar with metric to understand what kilometre > distance are (or megametre or > >> gigametre distances), it is also true that there > ALSO are many people "out > >> there" who DO understand (and prefer) the > simplicity of the SI system. You owe > >> it to those people, too, to express your data in > ways that they understand and > >> prefer. > > > > > > ----- > > No virus found in this message. > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > > Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1498/3516 - > Release Date: 03/19/11 > >
