Search the Internet for "Mars Rover Engineering Drawings" and you will find plenty of numbers in SI units!
Gene Mechtly ________________________________ From: Kilopascal [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 8:30 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars | Metric Views Derek, I did some further research and even though there is no definitive yes or no considering Curiosity's measurement origins, the evidence points to SI. Consider this link: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/26493/curiosity-rover-msl-specification-dimensions and note the responses and subsequent links. NASA's factsheet (http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/530955main_mslfactsheet20110324.pdf) on curiosity is dual, but SI is primary and rounded. This link: http://boingboing.net/2011/04/06/nasa-mars-science-la.html appears to be the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA where it was built and tested. Note only metric is used and numbers are rounded. Wikipedia also tends to state most dimensions in rounded metric with inclusion of non-rounded USC. I can't speak for certain, but I believe JPL is the only division of NASA that actually uses metric. They were responsible for the first Mars Orbiter that crashed in 1999. Then they did everything in metric, but they also contracted some of the design to Martin-Marietta, who went against the contact and provided thrust data in pounds instead of newtons. So if I were to conclude, it does appear that Curiosity is a metric child. It is unfortunate that other parts of NASA and the media go to great lengths to hide this fact. One final note. I think it is a real hoot that the person who originally asked the questioned mentioned 10 feet, but all of the responses came back metric only. http://metricviews.org.uk/2012/08/nasas-curiosity-rover-lands-on-mars/#more-3430
