NASA Cut Means No Roving for Mars Rover
March 24th, 2008 By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
(AP) -- Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday.
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If these two rovers are 'doomed' anyway by the shutting down, as they very likely will be soon, why not turn them over to, say, a university team? There isn't much real science to get out of them, anyway, if they're going to be shut down, so might as well do something with them before the dust storms take them out.
Or better yet fire a few of the "political advisers" that the US government has making sure that NASA doesn't make any press releases that make them look bad. How much money do they spend every year proofreading NASA press releases and papers to make sure there is no substantial mention of AGW or other contentious issues? Where AGW is real or not, political interference either way is a waste of time and money, and I'd bet that that interference costs them more than a measly 4 million.
I mean, come on! One-hundred-freakin-sixty-four! Hel-LO-O??!
1. Some might not think its all that bad politicking. The result will certainly be that the general public takes notice of the cutbacks, and thus maybe there will be pressure to increase funding. (Yes, its still politicking)
2. But then NASA is a very inefficient operation in general, bogged down with bureaucracy, incompetence, and laziness from top to bottom (no not everyone involved). So maybe a cutback in general is good. If it sticks, hopefully the heads will get tired of politicking when they see it does no good, and eventually juggle the money more efficiently.
3. There are some projects that some might argue are better than continuing the rovers over another year, like exotic propulsion systems and alternate energy sources. --dunno how much, if any, of those were trimmed.
WHAT A WASTE!!!!! SHAME SHAME SHAME!!!!
I'll bet the issue is paying salaries to umpteen redundant techs monitoring these little gems. Not in "real" operations cost. I bet any good university could monitor these rovers using 1/20th the manpower and money.
I feel sick.
We need to put 50% of NASA's budget into commercial companies. Let them build and maintain the infrastructure. Let NASA and the Universities chase baubles with the other 50%. Research establishments are not designed or rewarded for maintaining roads.