[thedaydreamer]

First - Great job finding this report. Thank you for that.

So had a look at the report.

There was one more problem actually. This machine, the MCO, had asymmetrical solar panels which would cause solar pressure ( force by sunlight ) to create a very mild spin ( angular momentum ). Now this angular momentum had to be desaturated time to time in order to keep this machine stable. Now, one module called SM_FORCES calculate this adjustment and feeds to AMD ( Angular Momentum Desaturation ). Now, this SM_FORCES & AMD uses different unit system, which was ignored by whoever wrote this connecting piece of program. Due to this error desaturation was not enough ( or more ) and it kept building over the period of 9 months.

Now, I notice that NASA has a separate team to navigate this machine to mars. There data showed this angular momentum adjustment event occurred 10-15 times more than expected. It was like a man walking with one leg shorter than another. It's a 9 months journey from mars to earth. They must have seen the first sign to inconsistency with in first few weeks only, just guessing though.

In this report, out of 8 possible contributing causes, at-least 3 are attributed to navigation team. I think success of such mission depends not only on meticulous planning but also on thinking on the feet ability of the team. ( Any Apollo 13 fans? :) )