In 1998, NASA launched the Mars Climate Orbiter to study Mar…
In 1998, NASA launched the Mars Climate Orbiter to study Mars’ atmosphere. The Orbiter traveled from Earth to Mars, before burning up in the Martian atmosphere. In an investigation, it was determined that the cause of this was that Lockheed Martin (the company that manufactured the Orbiter) used US customary units (miles, feet, inches), whereas NASA used SI units (centimeters, meters, kilometers). What characteristic of useful information was missing from this scenario?