How a Single Math Error Caused a $500 Million Satellite to Crash
Summary
TLDRThis video script recounts the costly mistake of NASA's Mars orbiter mission in 1999, which was destroyed due to a metric conversion error made by Lockheed Martin. It highlights the importance of the metric system's adoption and the challenges faced by the United States in transitioning from the English customary system. The script emphasizes the universal difficulty of math and engineering, and it encourages learning from mistakes. It also promotes Brilliant's educational resources for mastering complex subjects like orbital mechanics.
Takeaways
- 🚀 NASA's 1999 Mars Orbiter mission failed due to a math error that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
- 📏 The error stemmed from a mix-up between the metric and customary (imperial) systems of measurement.
- 🌍 The metric system was invented in France in the 1790s and gradually spread across Europe and its colonies.
- 🏰 Germany and Italy, which were collections of independent states with various measurement systems, adopted the metric system to facilitate trade and communication.
- 🇬🇧 The United Kingdom and Ireland were the last European countries to adopt the metric system, with the UK doing so in 1965.
- 🗽 The United States has had a complicated relationship with the metric system, with the federal government adopting it in 1975, but much of the population and private sector still using customary units.
- 🔢 Lockheed Martin, a private contractor for NASA, used customary units instead of metric as specified, leading to the miscalculation of satellite thruster data.
- 🌐 The Mars Orbiter was designed to orbit at 150 km but descended to 57 km due to the measurement error, causing it to burn up in Mars' atmosphere.
- 📚 The story illustrates that even highly trained professionals can make simple mistakes with significant consequences, emphasizing the importance of careful measurement and unit conversion.
- 💡 Learning from mistakes is crucial, and NASA has not repeated such a conversion error since, showing the value of understanding and applying lessons learned.
Q & A
What was the main reason behind the failure of NASA's Mars satellite in 1999?
-The main reason behind the failure was a math error caused by a unit conversion mistake between the metric system used by NASA and the customary system used by their subcontractor, Lockheed Martin.
Which company was responsible for the design and construction of the failed Mars satellite?
-Lockheed Martin was responsible for the design and construction of the Mars satellite that failed in 1999.
What was the cost of the Mars satellite failure in terms of money and time?
-The cost of the Mars satellite failure was over three hundred and twenty-seven million dollars, which is equivalent to five hundred and twenty-three million dollars in today's money, and ten months of time spent on the mission.
Why did Lockheed Martin provide data in pounds instead of the metric system as required by NASA?
-Lockheed Martin, despite NASA's explicit contract specifications to use the metric system, provided data in pounds, likely due to their continued use of the customary system.
What was the intended orbit distance of the Mars satellite, and what actually happened?
-The intended orbit distance of the Mars satellite was 150 kilometers, but due to the conversion error, it descended to just 57 kilometers above the Martian surface and burned up in the atmosphere.
How did the metric system originate and spread?
-The metric system originated in France in the 1790s and spread across Europe and to colonies, with most countries adopting it by the 19th century. It was adopted by the United States in 1975 for military and government agencies.
Which countries are known to have been slow in adopting the metric system?
-The United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States were known to be slow in adopting the metric system, with the US being the last English-speaking country to officially adopt it for certain government agencies.
What is the significance of the metric system in simplifying international trade and communication?
-The metric system simplifies international trade and communication by providing a standardized system of measurement that all countries can use, eliminating confusion and errors caused by different local systems.
What lesson can be learned from the Mars satellite failure regarding unit conversion and communication?
-The lesson learned from the Mars satellite failure is the critical importance of clear communication and adherence to specified unit systems to prevent costly mistakes in engineering and scientific endeavors.
How does the video script encourage viewers to improve their understanding of complex subjects like math and engineering?
-The video script encourages viewers to improve their understanding of complex subjects by suggesting educational resources like Brilliant's courses and daily challenges, which provide context and practical application of concepts.
Outlines
🚀 The Costly Math Mistake of Mars Orbiter
The video begins by highlighting the importance of learning from mistakes, especially in complex fields like mathematics and engineering. It recounts the story of a significant error made by NASA in 1999, where a satellite intended to orbit Mars caught fire and exploded due to a math error. This error was traced back to a miscommunication between NASA, which uses the metric system, and Lockheed Martin, which was still using the customary system. Despite NASA's contract specifying the use of metric units, Lockheed Martin provided data in pounds, leading NASA to incorrectly assume the data was in metric units. The result was a catastrophic failure, with the satellite descending too close to Mars and burning up in its atmosphere, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The video uses this historical event to underscore the universal challenge of math and the potential for even the most skilled professionals to make costly errors.
📚 Learning from Mistakes: The Path to Mastery
The second paragraph shifts focus from the historical account to the broader implications of the mistake and the importance of learning from them. It emphasizes that math and engineering are challenging fields where even small errors can lead to significant consequences. The video suggests that such mistakes offer valuable lessons, as they teach us what not to do in the future. It points out that NASA has not repeated such a conversion error since the Mars Orbiter incident. The video then transitions to promoting educational resources, specifically courses on gravitational physics and daily challenges offered by Brilliant, which aim to help learners improve their skills in science and mathematics. The host encourages viewers to embrace education and self-improvement, offering a discount for the first 500 people who sign up for Brilliant's premium subscription. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to learn from their mistakes and to continue their educational journey.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Metric System
💡NASA
💡Lockheed Martin
💡Unit Conversion Error
💡Mars Climate Orbiter
💡English Customary System
💡Gravitational Physics
💡Orbital Mechanics
💡Brilliant.org
💡Real-life Law
Highlights
A math error in 1999 led to the destruction of a NASA satellite, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The metric system was first invented in France in the 1790s to bring order to the chaos of different measurement systems.
Napoleon spread the metric system across Europe as he conquered territories.
Germany and Italy, which were collections of independent countries, adopted the metric system for ease of trade and standardization.
By the 19th century, most European countries had adopted the metric system, with the UK and Ireland being late adopters.
The United States has had a complicated relationship with the metric system, with the government adopting it but much of the population still using the customary system.
NASA's Mars satellite disaster was due to a failure to convert measurements from pounds to the metric system.
Lockheed Martin, a subcontractor for NASA, used pounds instead of the metric system as specified by NASA.
NASA engineers assumed the data provided by Lockheed Martin was in the metric system, leading to a fatal miscalculation.
The satellite was destroyed upon arrival at Mars due to incorrect thruster data, which was in pounds instead of the expected metric units.
The mistake underscored that even highly-trained professionals can make simple errors with significant consequences.
The incident serves as a lesson in the importance of double-checking measurements and the potential for human error.
Brilliant.org offers courses and challenges to help individuals learn complex subjects like physics and mathematics.
Learning from mistakes is emphasized as a way to improve and avoid repeating the same errors.
The video encourages viewers to educate themselves on scientific and mathematical concepts through online platforms like Brilliant.org.
The video concludes with an offer for the first 500 viewers to get 20% off a premium subscription to Brilliant.org.
Transcripts
this video was made possible by
brilliant learn complex subjects simply
at brilliant org slash real-life floor
math is hard but at least you probably
have never made a math mistake that cost
her company hundreds of millions of
dollars in damages not everybody can be
so lucky as you though you see back in
1999 NASA tried getting a satellite into
orbit around Mars but it caught on fire
and blew up immediately when it arrived
they traced the problem back to a single
math error that was probably caused by a
small group of people who would all
probably be jealous of whatever the
biggest mistake that you think you've
ever made was but in order to understand
how the math error was made and why it
costs so much money and time we need to
take a history lesson in communist units
also known as the metric system before
the metric system the world was ruled by
chaos and everybody used a different
system for measuring things based on
whatever the hell they felt like
basically but all of that too began to
change in France where the metric system
was first invented in the 1790s when the
people decided to invent a new system
that you know actually made some sense a
guy named Napoleon came around and
started conquering stuff in spreading
the metric system around like it was
some kind of disease Germany and Italy
were both made up of a bunch of
different independent countries at the
time who each used their own different
crazy forms of measuring things and that
was difficult for one simple reason
imagine for a moment that you live in
Bavaria and you need to trade a bag of
potatoes for a pig with some guy in
Prussia you weigh your potatoes in units
of Toyota Corollas well the guy you're
trading with in Prussia not only doesn't
know what the hell that even is but he
also measures things by weighing them in
units of the clay brick that some keying
a hundred years ago decided was the
standard that is confusing and if you
throw in even more weirdos with their
other weird systems of weighing things
you can see how it gets even worse
so trading with people sucks but what if
we could just abandon our own systems
and all just use a brand-new system of
measuring things that we all will have
in common and we'll all have to learn so
it's fair I don't know that sounds like
communism set England but I don't know
that sounds pretty great said Germany
and Italy
who both promptly adopted it after
France and so metric became the hot new
fad across Europe and it spread from
there to all of their colonies which was
basically everywhere France Spain
Portugal Germany Italy the Netherlands
Austria and the Ottomans all adopted
metric in the 19th century but other
countries took a little bit longer
Russia adopted it in 1918 after the
Russian Revolution Japan and China
picked it up in the 1920s in India
picked it up basically right after they
got independence from Britain by the
1960s every country in Europe had
adopted the metric system except for the
United Kingdom and Ireland the
english-speaking world has always been
the slowest community in the world to
adopt metric mostly because we think
that the English invented units of
pounds and inches and yards makes more
sense for some reason and also because
the English invented that system and not
the gross French anyway the UK finally
said fine in 1965 and caved in an
adopted metric Ireland followed suit a
few years later as did New Zealand
Australia and finally Canada in 1973 by
the current year in 2019 every single
country in the entire world except for
three of them have adopted the metric
system and those three are Myanmar
Liberia and the United States which is
the last english-speaking country
holdout that hasn't caved in yet the
metric system has had a rather
complicated history in the United States
the federal government adopted it as the
official system of measurement for the
military and government agencies back in
1975 but the vast majority of people and
private businesses still to this day use
the English customary system and this is
where the history lesson leads us back
to the engineering disaster in 1999 as a
US federal government agency nASA uses
the metric system to conduct all of
their business but as a private business
their subcontractor Lockheed Martin was
still using the customary system NASA
explicitly specified in their contract
that all of their subcontractors had to
convert their measurements into metric
but apparently Lockheed Martin looked at
that and then decided that they wouldn't
Lockheed Martin designed and built the
satellite but they provided NASA
years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
with data from the onboard thrusters in
units of force in pounds rather than in
the metric mutants the NASA engineers
looked at Lockheed's data for the
thrusters notice that it didn't say
anywhere hey guys
customary units here and so they assumed
that it was all in metric and just
carried on the satellite was launched
without anybody noticing that and after
ten months of traveling and over three
hundred and twenty seven million dollars
being spent on the mission or five
hundred and twenty three million dollars
in today's money more than the combined
annual salaries of nine thousand average
Americans the satellite was destroyed in
a matter of seconds the satellite was
supposed to orbit Mars at a distance of
150 kilometers but because of the
conversion error in the thrusters it
actually descended down to just 57
kilometers above the Martian surface and
proceeded to burn up in the atmosphere
the lesson here is that math is equally
difficult for everyone and even
highly-trained scientists and engineers
at the highest levels of their
professions can sometimes make the
simplest of mistakes that cause
unbelievable amounts of damage the good
news is that there's always a lesson in
a mistake you always learn how not to do
it the next time and true to form NASA
hasn't made a conversion error this
catastrophic ever since so there's no
reason to feel ashamed if math and
engineering are concepts that you want
to be better at but you're struggling
with right now I'm certainly not a
scientist nor an engineer but I am a fan
of both disciplines and I love learning
more about them through courses like
brilliance class on gravitational
physics which will teach you everything
that you need to know about orbital
mechanics and how to successfully get a
satellite up into orbit without blowing
it up or you could complete one of
brilliance daily challenges every day
really it presents you with interesting
scientific and mathematical problems to
test your brain and each one provides
you with the context and framework that
you need to tackle it so that you learn
the concepts by actually applying them
and if you like the problem and want to
learn more there's a course quiz that
explores the same concept in greater
detail and if you get confused there's
an entire community of thousands of
other learners discussing them and
writing solutions slow and steady you
can go from curiosity to mastery one day
at a time
so if you're feeling inspired and you
like to spend your time educating
yourself go ahead and visit brilliant
org slash real life lor and sign up for
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that link will also get 20% off of their
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and support real-life law at the same
time and as always thank you for
watching
[Music]
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