BLAME IT ON THOSE BLASTED METRICS -- AGAIN

Oops!

It was bad enough to lose a $125 million spacecraft that was supposed to go into orbit around Mars and send back important climate data.

But then to find out the spacecraft was lost -- probably burned up in the Martian atmosphere -- because of confusion over metric and English measurements was unnerving, to say the least.

Remember the push for the United States to adopt the metric system a few years back? The push became a little shove and then a nudge until finally the government gave up and decided to stay on what is known as the English system: miles, quarts, pounds and so on instead of meters, liters and grams.

But, in a remarkable communication foul-up, the spacecraft's manufacturer measured acceleration data in pounds of force, while scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory assumed -- yes, assumed -- that the measurements were in newtons, part of the metric system.

Well, now you know what happens if you give something a 100-newton push instead of a 100-pound push. You burn up $125 million.

The head guy at NASA said afterward that his folks want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

It turns out "close enough for government work" wasn't close enough after all.