In 1999, NASA lost a $125 million Mars spacecraft because of a metric-versus-imperial mix-up — the kind of conversion mistake most of us have made, only this one ended with a probe disappearing into the Martian atmosphere

In 1999, NASA lost a $125 million Mars spacecraft because of a metric-versus-imperial mix-up — the kind of conversion mistake most of us have made, only this one ended with a probe disappearing into the Martian atmosphere

When the Mars Climate Orbiter left Earth on December 11, 1998, it carried a clear and substantial set of objectives. The spacecraft was designed to spend a Martian year in orbit, mapping the planet’s weather patterns and seasonal shifts in water vapor and carbon dioxide ice —data scientists needed to better understand Mars’s climate history, seasonal water vapor, dust, clouds and carbon dioxide ice. It would also serve as a communications relay …