As presented in the Software Failure, the root cause of the Mars Climate Orbiter problem was
A) the cost of the project
B) an inability to track the orbiter at long distances
C) atmospheric friction
D) a communication issue between subsystems
E) none of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

D) The cause was determined to be an embarrassing communication issue between subsystems. The navigation subsystem used imperial units of measure (pound-force) and the spacecraft's software itself expected data in metric units (newtons).

As Presented in the Software Failure, the Root Cause of the Mars