Bui 1

Tuan Anh Bui

Professor Muesing
ENGL 2116
13 November 2015
Failure of Technical Communication at Lockheed Martin
Lloyd, Robin. "Metric Mishap Caused Loss of NASA Orbiter." CNN. Cable News Network, 30
Sept. 1999. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/>.
Due to a technical communication error, the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter was
destroyed before it could complete its mission of examining the climate of Mars. The team at
Lockheed Martin had used English units while the team at NASA used the established standard
metric system. This failure of communication lead to the Mars Orbiters engines firing 100km
closer to Mars than anticipated, resulting in the orbiter burning up in Mars atmosphere. This
poses the question as to why the metric system wasnt used when it is the standard of the
sciences and NASA.
This is a reliable article as it comes from one the leading news providers, CNN. The
article was published after an NASA review board released their findings and about a week after
the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost. It was written by CNNs Interactive Senior Writer Robin
Lloyd, who is a science writer. She has Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California and
has written articles for other science websites and museums.

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I see the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter as avoidable and as a failure on Lockheed
Martins end. I am curious as to how Lockheed Martin, a major aerospace company, failed to use
the correct units or why the mistake was not caught early on. What amazes me more is that they
also worked with NASA on their next few projects.
The field I chose for this semester was in aerospace and aviation. The two
companies/organization involved, NASA and Lockheed Martin are major leaders the aerospace
field. This article is a real world example of why technical communicate is important. The two
teams failed to effectively communicate their data, resulting in mission failure and loss of their
asset. The loss of Mars Climate Orbiter teaches us to follow established standards and to
communicate effectively. It shows how a simple mistake, such as using the incorrect units, can
have a disastrous effect.

Shalal-Esa, Andrea. "Pentagon Report Faults F-35 on Software, Reliability." Yahoo Finance.
N.p., 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
<http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-pentagon-report-faults-f-35-softwarereliability-095618311--sector.html>.
The $400 billion F-35 program is the most expensive military project in history and is
being funded by eight countries, including Britain, Canada, and the Unitec States. A 25 page
report to Congress by the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Michael
Gilmore, reports on the Lockheed Martins F-35 technical issues which could delay the aircraft
in 2015. According to the report, the F-35 faces serious software issues as well reliability and
maintenance issues. Testing of the aircrafts software indicate deficiencies in many of the

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aircrafts systems, such as radar, navigation, electro-optical target system, distributed aperture
system, helmet-mounted display system, and datalink. These software issues would not be fixed
until the end of 2015, further delaying release to the F-35 fleet until July 2016. However, the Air
Force is confident in Lockheed Martins abilities and the F-35 capabilities.
This article is written by Andrea Shalal-Esa (edited by Doina Chiacu and David
Gregorio) and published by Yahoo Finance. Shalal-Esa is a writer for Reuters University and
focuses on topics relating to aviation. It is pertaining to a document released by the Department
of Defense, about known issues relating to the F-35. There seems to be no indication that this
source is unreliable.
Having been to Lockheed Martin and having hands on with the F-35, I can confirm that
there are serious issues, both mechanical and software. I think the F-35 program is a failure and a
waste of government money. As its intended purpose is a multirole fighter, the F-35 tries to do
too much and doesnt succeed. The F-35 is not needed as the airframes the F-35 intend to replace
does the jobs better than the F-35 can.
This relates to the field I picked because the F-35 is an aircraft and one of its many issues
is software related, which is my major. The F-35 program is a lesson in fulfilment. The F-35 was
a big promise to deliver: to build an aircraft that can pretty much do everything. Since, it had too
big of an ambition, Lockheed Martin obviously failed to deliver in many of its aspects. It has
since been overly delayed and going severely over budget. I can use these lessons in my field to
deliver a working product, on schedule in a manner that is financially stable for my company.
Also not to make promises of a product that I cannot deliver.