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Re: [Phys-L] backwards units

"a navigation error resulted from some spacecraft commands being sent in English units instead of being converted to metric." I take it the units in error were American Customary units, (which differ in some ways from English Customary units - the most noticeable being 1 US gallon = 0.8 UK gallons) and the loss of $193 million represents as much as three months remuneration for at least one investment fund manager, as reported this year.

Brian Whatcott

On 5/5/2015 2:56 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
On 2015, May 04, , at 18:10, Chuck Britton <britton@ncssm.edu> wrote:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1998-073A <http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1998-073A>

Last paragraph has the numbers -

"The Mars Surveyor '98 program spacecraft development cost 193.1 million dollars.

I don’t think all of the development cost should be included in the loss, as some available for future use. I presume not idiosyncratic.


bc
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