The demise of the Mars Climate Orbiter went down in history as one of the biggest technical mistakes in space research.
Photo: NASA
The engineers at NASA had no idea until the last moment about the banal error that caused the demise of the Mars Climate Orbiter probe.
In September 1999, the world watched with excitement the NASA mission called Mars Climate Orbiter. This probe, weighing 338 kilograms, had the task of investigating the atmosphere of Mars, its climate and surface changes. However, instead of a scientific triumph, there was a disaster that went down in history as one of the biggest technical mistakes in space research.
An ambitious mission with an unfortunate ending
The Mars Climate Orbiter was part of the Mars Surveyor ’98 program, along with the Mars Polar Lander probe. The total cost of the mission was $327.6 million, including development, launch and operational costs. The probe was expected to bring back valuable data about the Martian atmosphere that would help better understand the climate processes on the red planet. But it didn’t happen, the probe was destroyed when entering the atmosphere of Mars.
The cause of the probe’s failure was a simple but fatal error in unit conversion. Software developed by Lockheed Martin for the navigation system used imperial units, namely pound-force second (lbf·s). On the other hand, the NASA team expected data in metric units, ie newton second (N·s). This mismatch caused the correction pulses for the probe path to be calculated incorrectly.
Due to this error, the probe entered the Martian atmosphere, which it was supposed to use to reduce its speed, at a completely different angle than planned and plunged too deep into it. Such a low trajectory resulted in the probe being destroyed due to extreme heat and aerodynamic forces. The loss of the probe was not only a financial loss, but also an irreplaceable loss of scientific data.
Lessons for the future
This event serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of consistent communication, coordination and control in engineering projects. After the incident, NASA conducted a thorough analysis of its internal processes. Stricter standards for cooperation with external suppliers were introduced and the need for a unified system of units across all teams and projects was emphasized.
The Mars Climate Orbiter disaster had far-reaching consequences for other space missions as well. A few months later, the Mars Polar Lander probe also failed, leading to a rethinking of NASA’s approach to mission planning and management. The agency focused on improving communication between teams, increasing emphasis on software and hardware testing and verification, and implementing more robust quality control systems.
The case of the Mars Climate Orbiter points to a wider problem of misalignment of measurement systems around the world. Although the metric system is internationally accepted, some countries, including the United States, still use imperial units. This incident thus opened a debate on the need for a global standardized system of units, especially in areas where even a small error can lead to large losses.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
