Subsequently, two platinum standards were created representing the meter and the kilogram in the Archives de la République in Paris. Credit to several developments in the metric system can be dated back to the French revolution when it was first envisioned. Thus, over the course of centuries, different units and measuring standards have evolved independently.Īs the world has grown closer, the need for a single unified system of units has emerged. Additionally, the lack of communication tools prevented scholars from communicating, discussing and comparing ideas with scholars across the globe. For example, in one part of the world, the cycle of the sun was assumed to be a measure of time, whereas elsewhere, it was the lunar cycles that were used to define time. In the past, various regions of the world followed the measurement systems and units that were most convenient for them. Source: NASA/JPL/Corby Waste – (see also ), Public Domain, īefore venturing further into what happened on that dreaded day, let’s try to understand the different units of measurement and how they came into use in various regions across the globe. Artist’s conception of the Mars Climate Orbiter.
In a sense, the spacecraft was lost in translation. JPL engineers did not take into consideration that the units had been converted, i.e., the acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds^2 for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds^2. The navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet, and pounds. In addition, its function was to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor ’98 program for the Mars Polar Lander. The Mars Climate Orbiter, built at a cost of $125 million, was a 638-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on Decemto study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes. With an additional argument which is preset to 2, the number of maximum decimal places can be changed.Airflow Community Convection Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) NASA’s Lost Spacecraft The Metric System and NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter This means that the output value is always less than 1000, with the exception of tons. A fixed limit of 1000 is used in the function. This array can easily be expanded or modified to meet your own requirements. The following function internally uses an array with the assignments unit => conversion-factor.
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