
Why the Mars Climate Orbiter went off course - sehugg
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/why-the-mars-probe-went-off-course
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unpythonic
The failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter usually stars in hallway discussions
on types or notation. This article shows a long chain of failures far more
subtle than the punchline to which it's relegated. Design failures in the
beginning led to untracked course translation during what was supposed to be
rotation-only maneuvers. The infamous units of thrust issue between JPL
(newtons) and Lockheed (pounds force) was certainly an issue, but from the
article it doesn't seem to be the primary cause of failure. And finally
management defaulting to an everything-is-ok attitude and ignoring the nervous
input of the navigators meant that when evidence was building that something
was wrong, it was ignored.

