Good idea. We should all write. The body text of my letter follows: I have just read that NASA plans to return to "english" units (US Customary) as their primary units of measure on a space mission that involves cooperation with other country's space agencies.. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=31353 I can not think of a more ridiculous action for them to take, and I urge you, Mr. President, to reject this. It seems ridiculous for at least three reasons: *In 1988, Congress designated metric (the International System of Units or SI) as the preferred system of measurement for the United States. Why does NASA continue to ignore this? (particulary after losing the Mars Climate Orbiter due to an english/metric conversion error by a supplier because of mixed unit usage) *In 1991, George H. W. Bush signed EO 12770 requiring Federal agencies to metricate (particularly procure in metric). How is NASA exempt from Executive Orders, and how does it cost NASA extra to use a system of measurement that the automobile companies found it economical to switch to nearly 40 years ago? http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/laws/eo12770.html
*Even if this were a rational decision for some missions (in my view, it is NOT), how can it be rational on a mission where NASA must cooperate with other nations' space agencies, and those nations don't use US Customary units. (Actually no other nation does as the rest of the world is metric, as the US should be. We stand alone in the world using this cumbersome, antiquated set of units).
