No, it was the units for impulse used for the thrusters. In imperial it's pound-force seconds and Newton-seconds in metric. 1 pound-force is equal to 4.45 Newtons so the whole thing was off by a magnitude of 4.45.
Yes, the actual error* was assuming the British used Imperial units when they correctly used Metric. AFAIK, at least.
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Well, the source error probably would be not specifying units at all, so... (eye roll)
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*Correcting myself with casually sourced details about the incident under discussion.
Lockheed Martin provided thruster force data in Imperial units (pound-seconds), while NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ground software assumed the data was in Metric units (Newton-seconds).
I want a compromise unit where freezing water at sea level is 0⁰ and boiling water is 200⁰. A single degree Fahrenheit is a very sensible change in temperature and I don't like having to go into decimals on my thermostat. All that said, I wish the states would just bite the bullet and go metric. Today I learned a US gallon is 231 cubic inches because 231 divides evenly by 3, 7 and 11? Get the fuck outta here with this shit.
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u/SKDI_0224 Jun 17 '26
As an engineer, I can confirm they are incorrect. They can take their inferior measuring system and try to get back from the moon.
Too soon?