Re: Shock,Horror: Kingdom Lost for Want of a Nail

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

For the benefit of the confused:

> > Douglas Isbell
> > Headquarters, Washington, DC                     Sept. 30, 1999
> > (Phone: 202/358-1753)
> >
> > Mary Hardin
> > Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
> > (Phone: 818/354-5011)
> >
> > Joan Underwood
> > Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO
> > (Phone: 303/971-7398)
> >
> > RELEASE 99-113
> >
> > MARS CLIMATE ORBITER TEAM FINDS LIKELY CAUSE OF LOSS
> >
> >      A failure to recognize and correct an error in a transfer of
> > information between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in
> > Colorado and the mission navigation team in California led to the
> > loss of the spacecraft last week, preliminary findings by NASA's
> > Jet Propulsion Laboratory internal peer review indicate.
> >
> >      "People sometimes make errors," said Dr. Edward Weiler,
> > NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science. "The problem
> > here was not the error, it was the failure of NASA's systems
> > engineering, and the checks and balances in our processes to
> > detect the error.  That's why we lost the spacecraft."
> >
> >      The peer review preliminary findings indicate that one team
> > used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other
> > used metric units for a key spacecraft operation.  This
> > information was critical to the maneuvers required to place the
> > spacecraft in the proper Mars orbit.
> >
> >       "Our inability to recognize and correct  this simple error
> > has had major implications," said Dr. Edward Stone, director of
> > the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  "We have underway a thorough
> > investigation to understand this issue."
> >
> >     Two separate review committees have already been formed to
> > investigate the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter: an internal JPL peer
> > group and a special review board of JPL and outside experts. An
> > independent NASA failure review board will be formed shortly.
> >
> >      "Our clear short-term goal is to maximize the likelihood of a
> > successful landing of the Mars Polar Lander on December 3," said
> > Weiler. "The lessons from these reviews will be applied across the
> > board in the future."
> >
> >      Mars Climate Orbiter was one of a series of missions in a
> > long-term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet
> > Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science,
> > Washington, DC.  JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin
> > Astronautics, Denver, CO.  JPL is a division of the California
> > Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
> >
> >                        - end-