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NASA Sticking To Imperial Units For Shuttle Replacement
JerryQ sends in a story at New Scientist about the criticism NASA is taking for deciding to use Imperial units in the development of the Constellation program, their project to replace the space shuttle. "The sticking point is that Ares is a shuttle-derived design — it uses solid rocket boosters whose dimensions and technology are based on those currently strapped to either side of the shuttle's giant liquid fuel tank. And the shuttle's 30-year-old specifications, design drawings and software are rooted in pounds and feet rather than newtons and meters. ... NASA recently calculated that converting the relevant drawings, software and documentation to the 'International System' of units (SI) would cost a total of $370 million — almost half the cost of a 2009 shuttle launch, which costs a total of $759 million. 'We found the cost of converting to SI would exceed what we can afford,' says [NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma]."
How many cwts of Mars Orbiters must be lost before we learn?!
My work here is dung.
1 foot = 0.3048 meters
There you go, NASA. That one's for free.
I'd buy them a pint.
The sticking point is that Ares is a shuttle-derived design â" it uses solid rocket boosters whose dimensions and technology are based on those currently strapped to either side of the shuttle's giant liquid fuel tank. And the shuttle's 30-year-old specifications, design drawings and software are rooted in pounds and feet rather than newtons and meters.
And in 20 years, that'll be the same excuse given for building Ares's replacement with imperial units.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Abe Simpson: The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.
Why is my mailbox full of unfunny spam?
Because a bunch of horses' asses keep hitting the Forward button.
I'll do the job for only $170 Million, and I'll get it done on time and within budget, something that NASA is not used to.
For an extra $30 Million, I'll even make sure it's accurate!
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
What's so special about 100? Oh, a decimal number... The irony is delicious.
Damn right.
Consistently and accurately labeling numbers with their units is a lot more important than making sure that it is easy to convert between units and occasionally be able to quickly do math.
SI is certainly easier to work with, but the constant implication that this makes it hard to work in Imperial units is ridiculous. If someone has trouble with inches and feet, I'm not going to pay them to do any work on my rocket.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
nothing different from celsius. Over 100 Celsius is way too damn hot, and under 0 is way too damn cold.
Next time you should replace 4999 of those hours with a simple BASH script.
The original files were not available. What shell do you use that compiles to paper?
lpr
Seeing the discussion here, I wonder why nobody has brought this up yet:
http://xkcd.com/526/
I grew up in rural Canada, and can assure you that you can, indeed, tip a cow. Certain breeds are more difficult to sneak up on and others wake up before they hit ground, but it is certainly not difficult once someone has shown you how. If you really are from a farm and have never done it or even seen it done, I suggest you visit us up north and we'll take you out one night and show you the finer points.