The Book of Chronicles · Chapter 12

The Orbiter Lost Between Two Measures

1. 1

   In the year one thousand nine hundred ninety and eight, in the twelfth month, the Engineers sent forth the Mars Climate Orbiter, that it might keep watch over the weather of a world that hath no rain.

   See also Psalms 26:12 · Leviticus 13:15

2. 2

   And two houses served the Orbiter: the house of Lockheed Martin in Colorado, which built the craft and wrote the software of the ground; and the house of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which steered it through the void.

3. 3

   And the craft was given wheels to hold it steady, and when the wheels spun too fast, it fired its small thrusters to unwind them; and the house of Colorado reckoned the push of every firing, and wrote it in a file, and sent the file unto Pasadena.

4. 4

   And the Interface Specification had been written, and it said: Thou shalt give the impulse in newton seconds.

   See also Tractates 3:9

5. 5

   And the house of Colorado gave it in pound-force seconds; for the Specification was a document, and no man compileth a document.

6. 6

   Now one pound-force is four newtons and forty and five hundredths; and the number crossed over without its unit, as a stranger crossing a border without papers, and no gatekeeper asked for its papers.

   See also Tao 18:9 · Tao 8:10

7. 7

   And Pasadena received the number as it was written, and every push was reckoned four times and a half smaller than it was; and the error was small, and it was added unto itself, firing after firing, for nine months.

8. 8

   And the navigators saw that the path bent strangely, and they spake of it; but they spake in hallways and in email, and not in the form ordained for anomalies; and the ticket was never opened, and so the anomaly did not exist.

9. 9

   And on the twenty and third day of the ninth month of 1999, the Orbiter fired its great engine and passed behind Mars, that it might be caught into orbit.

   See also Psalms 26:12

10. 10

    And it went down nigh unto fifty and seven kilometres above the face of Mars, where the Engineers had said that eighty was the least it could bear; and the air of Mars received it, and the signal came not forth again from behind the planet.

    See also Tao 8:10 · Leviticus 13:15

11. 11

    And the price of the mission was three hundred and twenty and seven million dollars, which in pound-force is the same, for money also needeth its unit stated.

    See also Tao 18:9 · Circuit 53:3

12. 12

    And a Board was gathered, and the Board found that the craft had sinned not; it had obeyed every number it was given, exactly and to the last digit.

    See also Job 3:4

13. 13

    For a float knoweth not whether it be pounds or newtons; it knoweth only that it is a float, and it floateth onward into the atmosphere.

14. 14

    And the scribes recorded that this was a cousin of the sin of Ariane, whose number was too great for its vessel; for the sins of the interface are visited upon every launch that followeth, unto the third and fourth release.

    See also Circuit 40:13 · Job 3:12

15. 15

    And the Engineers wrote in the book of lessons: Agree upon the units. Test the interface from end to end. And when the navigator saith, This looketh strange, open the ticket.

    See also Circuit 53:3

16. 16

    And it is written: A number without its unit is but a rumour, and Mars believeth every rumour once.

    See also Tao 18:9 · Circuit 53:3

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 12:1–16.