UNDER A METRIC MOON Perhaps it will take a bit of Time before most of us realize that the Moon has changed somewhat in recent months.
Perhaps two groups would lead the discovery of such changes. The people who write lyrics for romantic love songs would lead the way; quickly joined by eager boy-girl combinations the world over who are , after all, the leading practitioners of the fine art of moon glow romance. Another group - an occupational one - would see such a change as a welcome boon for the betterment of all. Astronauts - those of such concerns in centuries as well as he men and women of today who see new meanings for all of us in the stars - and in the unseen realms called "space."
The change is a matter of measurement.
To many it may seem silly but to those persons whose very lives depend on the precise exactness of such measurements it can be everything else but funny. It has now been agreed that, henceforth, the moon will be subject to measurement by Metric System rules only. In making the announcement before the fourteen members of the international association, Jeff Vollosin, of NASA, noted there was a "a little cheer" from the foreign reps. There was irony in that small celebration because it has long been accused the United States of being the major stumbling blocking going to a inform measurement system.
There have been incidents in the past in which materials supplied by the United States were found to be incompatible. NASA has insisted on Metric measurement in their own work, but suppliers and contractors are not bound by such rules. In 1999 the loss of a Mars Climate Orbiter, a robotic probe, occurred because a contractor provided thruster firing data in English numbers while NASA was using metric.
This decision is a major victory for the metric system, and that has "bugged me" ever since grammar school days when we did debate as a classroom "sports activity". When "Resolved that we should the adopt the Metric System" I always hoped we would be assigned the negative side because usually won. The English system was American but French system was foreign. It may be that this NASA note will encourage some brave soul to stand up at their next School Board meeting and demand that "our disadvantaged Youth" be schooled in the Metric System.
If we continue to think in in terms of pounds and miles instead of kilograms and kilograms we are holding fast to our tiny spot in a minority. The nations of the world accept and use the Metric System. We are one of just three nations not using it. Our friends and associates are: Liberia and Burma.
Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-22-07 [c468wds]
