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MCO again
- To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Subject: MCO again
- From: "Donald O'Keeffe" <donald.okeeffe@signalhill.net>
- Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 23:32:00 -0500
- Old-X-Envelope-To: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
- Resent-Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 00:35:23 -0400 (EDT)
- Resent-From: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Resent-Message-ID: <IAA-eB.A.AlF.b1VB4@mu.pair.com>
- Resent-Sender: meteorite-list-request@meteoritecentral.com
Hello everyone,
Since nothing much is going on, I figured I'd send this again. I had
sent this info the tail end of last week, but I don't think it ever went
through.
Some of you may be aware of this, but the failure of that mission has
been attributed to a "Metric-English" slip. Lockheed Martin
Astronautics, the contractor, measured the force of small control
thrusters in the English unit, pounds, whereas JPL had expected newtons.
The misunderstanding sent the probe about 90 kilometers (that's 56
miles, after a voyage of 416 million miles) too close to Mars. That was
just enough to make the spacecraft disappear into the Martian
atmosphere.
The Mars Polar Lander, due to arrive in December, was built by the same
team and is being checked out now.
Don
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