That's one of the recommendations, more or less, that the NASA
Inspector General made in his report, John. The NASA Chief Engineer
agreed to follow that recommendation.
Jim
On Monday 09 April 2001 1811, kilopascal wrote:
> 2001-04-09
>
> The auto industry as well as many big industrial companies like
> caterpillar are already metric. I'm sure these big companies do
> business with thousands of little companies. These little companies
> have to accommodate the big companies if they want the big companies
> business. So, why can't the DOD and NASA, find domestic companies
> that are metric friendly and would not over-charge the government for
> metric? Once these imperialist contractors lose business to
> companies able to do metric, they will either have to change or go
> out of business.
>
> Doesn't the USMA publish a book and companies that produce metric
> parts or work in metric? Why can't the DOD and NASA get a copy of
> that book and look for contractors that will work in metric? It can
> be done.
>
>
>
>
> John
>
> Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrtümlich
> glaubt frei zu sein.
>
> There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely
> believe they are free!
>
> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mojo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Monday, 2001-04-09 12:59
> Subject: [USMA:12100] RE: Misguided NASA official
>
> > >===== Original Message From [EMAIL PROTECTED] =====
> > >It seems that Dr. Edward J. Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator
> > > for Space Science, doesn't believe that NASA can't "tell"
> > > American businesses to use the metric system. Dr. Weiler is
> > > responsible for providing overall executive leadership of NASA's
> > > Space Science Enterprise, and with the attitude voiced in the NPR
> > > report, NASA won't provide much leadership to America's
> > > metric-based space science activities.
> >
> > Jim M,
> >
> > This is a *very* common theme, here in the DOD too. It goes hand in
> > hand
>
> with
>
> > the COTS mentality. It's not that we can't tell the contractor what
> > we
>
> want,
>
> > it's that we aren't allowed to tell the contractor to do anything
> > that the contractor can't also sell in a commercial product. The
> > idea is that the government saves the taxpayer money by not
> > developing specialized, one-off products, but instead the vendor
> > develops products for the general market
>
> and
>
> > the government only has to pay extra for what it really needs.
> >
> > It's not as brain-dead an idea as it may sound at first, but so far
> > as
>
> I've
>
> > seen it has not been implemented well enough to have the proper
> > effect
>
> <"my
>
> > opinion and not my employer's &c.">. It does make us focus on the
> > one or
>
> two
>
> > fondest wishes, and get rid of a lot of things we really can't
> > justify the need for. Unfortunately, it also makes it harder to get
> > in the things you really need but that are unpopular.
> >
> > So, even though there's not yet a mass market for Mars exploration,
> > it's likely that Dr. Weiler (or the reporter, I didn't read the
> > referenced
>
> article)
>
> > is saying that the government won't pay for the aerospace
> > contractor to
>
> use
>
> > units other than those it uses in other, commercial aerospace
>
> applications.
>
> > This is consistent with the general attitude wrt government
> > acquisition
>
> (at
>
> > least from my end of the world).
> >
> > Jim F - I don't think there's any Buy American requirement (but
> > wait a few minutes... ;), but anything that has anything to do with
> > space almost certainly carries national security concerns, so it's
> > unlikely NASA would
>
> look
>
> > outside our borders for a prime contractor.
> >
> > I'm not saying I like it, folks, I'm just saying it is indeed the
> > present climate.
> >
> > Mike
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
