Chapter 2, Problem 123E

Recall from Section 2.1 that NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter because one group of engineers used metric units in their calculations while another group used English units. Consequently, the Orbiter descended too far into the Martian atmosphere and burned up. Suppose that the orbiter was to have established orbit at 155 km and that one group of engineers specified this distance as $1\cdot 55\times {10}^5$ m. Suppose further that a second group of engineers programmed the Orbiter to go to $1\cdot 55\times {10}^5$

ft. What was the difference in kilometers between the two altitudes? How low did the probe go?

The $94 million Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in the Martian atmosphere in 1999 because two groups of engineers failed to communicate with each other about the units in their calculations.