Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Paul E. Bennett" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Olympic Spririt for Forth Followup-To: comp.lang.forth Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:24:45 +0100 Organization: Hidecs Consultancy Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <7x4nmauisn.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <2028826.7QaYsnLk6j@sunwukong.fritz.box> <7xd30x4t9c.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <2012Oct5.130829@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <7xa9vyuwlo.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <8544930.KNqXtjcyQv@sunwukong.fritz.box> <7xwqz1vcdu.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <1755828.uKo66frh80@sunwukong.fritz.box> <7xa9vw9r99.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <2012Oct11.192115@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> Reply-To: Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Trace: individual.net Q7hK0VxIrzrHuNeH1g1r4wNjblYbM2Rl/SXYmqFODhQjau1yjMMY8i6n1z8ypUsijA Cancel-Lock: sha1:iPps4Qh04SEXvkSh+JjnT6D4eto= Mail-Copies-To: Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk User-Agent: KNode/0.99.01 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:16225 Mark Wills wrote: [%X] >> what about the mars probe where they mixed imperial and metric units? >> >> Q.E.D :-) > > On September 23, 1999 NASA lost the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter > spacecraft after a 286-day journey to Mars. Miscalculations due to the > use of English units instead of metric units apparently sent the craft > slowly off course -- 60 miles in all. Thrusters used to help point the > spacecraft had, over the course of months, been fired incorrectly > because data used to control the wheels were calculated in incorrect > units. Lockheed Martin, which was performing the calculations, was > sending thruster data in English units (pounds) to NASA, while NASA's > navigation team was expecting metric units (Newtons). > > Woops. A case of not fully locking down the Interface Spec. -- ******************************************************************** Paul E. Bennett............... Forth based HIDECS Consultancy Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972 Tel: +44 (0)1235-510979 Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk.. ********************************************************************