[gleeaikin]

Mars known for swallowing space ships?

Wasn't one of those losses because some idiot didn't know the difference between the metric and the English systems of measurements, and the ship crashed when it wasn't programed to stop at the right time? Hardly Mars fault. If this was one of the two failures in 15 years, hardly a bad record. Actually better than our space record with two shiploads of astronauts lost in 15 years. Should we say that Earth swallows spaceships because of faulty O rings and loose foam insulation?

[rawhide]

Wasn't one of those losses because some idiot didn't know the difference between the metric and the English systems of measurements, and the ship crashed when it wasn't programed to stop at the right time?

Yes, you remember that one well, back in 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed. See:

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/10/orbiter.02/

or

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/