NASA's Juno, Armored Tank Heading For Jupiter

coondoggie writes "When it comes to ensuring that its upcoming Juno spacecraft can survive its mission, NASA is surrounding the spacecraft's electronic innards with titanium to ward off mission-threatening radiation. Juno's so-called radiation vault weighs about 200 kilograms (500 pounds), has walls that measure about a square meter (nearly 9 square feet) in area, about 1 centimeter (a third of an inch) in thickness, and 18 kilograms (40 pounds) in mass. About the size of an SUV's trunk — encloses Juno's command and data handling box, power and data distribution unit and about 20 other electronic assemblies, according to NASA."

Comments

Unit conversions

[Monkeedude1212]

has walls that measure about a square meter (nearly 9 square feet)

Is that really how American's say it?

1 meter = 3.2808399 feet. Wouldn't that make it ~3.2 Square feet? Or do you guys take off the square from the unit somehow, and apply it to the number, So a square meter would be 3.2808399 squared, or 10.76391044943201 (so closer to 11 feet than 9).

I just...

No seriously whats going on here?