Re: Name 3 countries you'd consider inviting to join the United States
True you can never eliminate human error but you can minimise the risk of human error by using the same system.
In the case of the Mars Climate Observer, yes it failed because of non-standardisation. Because 1 team used metric and another imperial. Had they both been using the same system they would have been no need to convert from one to another. Which is basically what happened
From wikipedia
However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into orbital insertion, due to ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound-seconds (lbf s) instead of the metric units of newton-seconds (N s) specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed.
So at first glance one or more human errors occured
1.>Lockheed failed to follow the NASA specification
2.>NASA failed to detect the error made by Lockheed
But the error was detected
The discrepancy between calculated and measured position, resulting in the discrepancy between desired and actual orbit insertion altitude, had been noticed earlier by at least two navigators, whose concerns were dismissed. A meeting of trajectory software engineers, trajectory software operators (navigators), propulsion engineers, and managers, was convened to consider the possibility of executing Trajectory Correction Maneuver-5, which was in the schedule. Attendees of the meeting recall an agreement to conduct TCM-5, but it was ultimately not done.
So yet more human errors failure to carry out TCM-5, the root cause of the error as I said earlier is due to companies using different measuring system.
True you can never eliminate human error but you can minimise the risk of human error by using the same system.
In the case of the Mars Climate Observer, yes it failed because of non-standardisation. Because 1 team used metric and another imperial. Had they both been using the same system they would have been no need to convert from one to another. Which is basically what happened
From wikipedia
However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into orbital insertion, due to ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound-seconds (lbf s) instead of the metric units of newton-seconds (N s) specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed.
So at first glance one or more human errors occured
1.>Lockheed failed to follow the NASA specification
2.>NASA failed to detect the error made by Lockheed
But the error was detected
The discrepancy between calculated and measured position, resulting in the discrepancy between desired and actual orbit insertion altitude, had been noticed earlier by at least two navigators, whose concerns were dismissed. A meeting of trajectory software engineers, trajectory software operators (navigators), propulsion engineers, and managers, was convened to consider the possibility of executing Trajectory Correction Maneuver-5, which was in the schedule. Attendees of the meeting recall an agreement to conduct TCM-5, but it was ultimately not done.
So yet more human errors failure to carry out TCM-5, the root cause of the error as I said earlier is due to companies using different measuring system.
