![]() Is it 100 feet long? Or is it 100 inches, 100 meters, 100 miles, or 100 smoots? It is important that all terms have compatible units when performing mathematical calculations. For example, when measuring a length, it is not enough to know that an object is 100 long. A subsequent forensic investigation revealed that the primary cause of the accident -or “mishap,” as the report termed it- was a fundamental error: incompatible units! Ī unit is a reference quantity for a type of measurement. This height was below the 80 km minimum where the orbiter would be destroyed by atmospheric friction. Telemetry data revealed that the MCO had approached Mars at a much lower altitude (60 km) than was thought at the time (150km). The initial post-mortem analysis suggested the loss had been the result of a navigation error. This loss of communication was expected to last for 21 minutes unfortunately, contact was never regained. The engine was fired in order to perform the necessary manoeuvre and contact was lost with the MCO as it passed behind the planet. It was then to spend almost 700 days monitoring the Martian climate and atmosphere. The goal was to spend a few weeks slowing down the spacecraft by skimming it along the atmosphere -a process known as aerobraking- in order to bring it gradually into a circular orbit. ![]() On September 23, 1999, NASA attempted to bring the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) into an elliptical orbit around the planet. Thankfully, few of us will ever have to admit to a mistake that cost over $125 million! If we are honest, all of us would confess to having erred on many occasions. Both quotes suggest that mistakes are a fundamental part of the human experience. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.Alexander Pope famously wrote that “to err is human.” In doing so, he was probably referencing Seneca the Younger who said something similar about seventeen hundred years earlier: errare humanum est. Artist’s rendition of the Mars Climate Orbiter.
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