Re: [amsat-bb] EU Mission to Mars

[David Green <kdgreen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IEEE Spectrum had an interesting article on that - Apparently they had
got the Imperial - Metric conversion incorrect but that wasn't
sufficient to sink MCO; what was, was management refusal to acknowledge
anything was wrong and take action.  Somebody even fed the telemetry
from MCO into the Mars Pathfinder software and found exactly where MCO
was going long before it plummeted into Mars' atmosphere.

The incorrect conversion was for the photon pressure on the spacecraft
complicated by its unusual shape.

>Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 22:19:14 -0500>
>From: Daniel Schultz <n8fgv@usa.net>
>Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] EU Mission to Mars

>Actually, the Martian Space Defense Command shot it down. They
>intercept about
>half of what Earth sends their way. And NASA keeps coming up with even
>lamer
>excuses to explain the failures. Does anyone really believe that a
>bunch of
>highly educated rocket scientists would forget about english to metric
>conversions? I think not.

>Dan Schultz N8FGV

John Geiger <johngeig@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well according to the conspiracy nuts and other
> believers in UFOs and little green men, the satellite
> worked just fine. The problem was that it found
> evidence of life on Mars, so it had to be turned into
> a stealth mission, and NASA just made up the story
> about the mission failing and losing contact.

> 73s John NE0P
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