The Math Mistake That Doomed a Mars Probe in 1999

[Buster's Uncle]

The Math Mistake That Doomed a Mars Probe in 1999
Nobody's trying to make an idiotic error in space. But sometimes it happens.
Popular Mechanics
By David Grossman  Oct 13, 2017 






Nobody wants to lose a ship or probe in space. The sheer number of hours put into each project are staggering, and yet, despite all the preparation and double-checking and redundancies, it still happens. YouTuber Curious Droid recounts one of the more embarrassing mishaps on a space mission: the doomed 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO).

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The core problem involved measuring in the Imperial system instead of the metric system—had been ongoing for nearly 10 months, yet had been undetected. Such a simple error, essentially a failure of translation, was traced to contractor Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Colorado. Using pounds when the NASA-JPL team was using the internationally recognized metric system proved to be a fatal mistake, sending the MCO to crash the surface of the Red Planet.

Luckily, the MCO has been a freak accident has opposed to the norm. While the loss of the MCO forced delayed an understanding of the Martian climate history, we're now learning more than ever with the Curiosity rover. And the next rovers look like they could be even more impressive.


http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/news/a28632/the-dumb-mistake-that-doomed-a-mars-probe-in-1999/