Mars Climate Orbiter Failure

Ashford Thom
Laron Rose
Sharmella Solomon
Monique Vyfhuis
Jamaine Benjamin
WHAT WAS THE MARS CLIMATE ORBITER?
The Mars Climate Orbiter was a robotic
space probe launched by NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration) on
December 11,1998. The Orbiters mass was
338 kilograms (745 lbs.), and was
constructed out of graphite composite. The
orientation of the spacecraft was
determined by a star tracker, 2 sun sensors
and two inertial measurement units.
WHY WAS THE ORBITER LAUNCHED?
The Mars Climate Orbiter was
launched to study the Martian
Climate, Atmosphere, Surface
changes and to act as the
communications relay in the Mars
Surveyor 98 program for Mars
Polar Lander.
ORBITERS ENCOUNTERS WITH MARS
The Orbiter began the planned orbital insertion maneuver on
September 23, 1999. The Orbiter went out of radio contact
when the spacecraft passed behind mars earlier than
expected, and communication was never reestablished. Due to
complications arisen from human error, the spacecraft
encountered Mars at a lower than anticipated altitude and
disintegrated due to atmospheric stresses.
CAUSE OF FAILURE
The primary cause of the discrepancy
was that one piece of ground software
produced results in an Imperial Unit,
while a second system that used those
results expected them to be in metric
units. The software that calculated the
total impulse produced by thruster
firings calculated results in pound-
seconds. The trajectory calculation
used these results to correct the
predicted position of the spacecraft for
the effects of thruster firings. This
software expected its inputs to be in
Newton-seconds.
WHY UNITS ARE IMPORTANT
Units are important because it
provides a uniformed and standard
structure for interpreting
information. The importance of
these units can be seen in the
Mars Climate Orbiter failure in
1999.