MSL Cost Caps and de-scoping - Sept '07 |
MSL Cost Caps and de-scoping - Sept '07 |
Sep 16 2007, 07:43 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
Very bad news.
It's certainly the best way to run the business of cost overruns but even if we are used to these kind of consequences, it's always sad to hear. NASA cuts LANL sampler from next Mars rover http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2007/09/...news/news02.txt Edit : And also... http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/sto...p;channel=space http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.sp....html?pid=25415 ... removal of the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) and the zoom capability on the mast camera... ... SAM and CheMin were cost-capped... |
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Sep 21 2007, 05:55 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 8-May 05 Member No.: 381 |
If it turns out that ChemCam doesn't make it onto MSL, I think it will be the equivalent of when the Raman spectrometer was dropped from the MER rovers. I know Steve Squyres really regretted not being able to fly that instrument, and I'm sure it did hurt the science return, since it would have been the only instrument able to identify organic molecules in the MER payload. But look at what we did get from Spirit and Opportunity: a rich science return beyond what anyone anticipated. Most people don't think of MER as a compromised mission these days. I really hope ChemCam does fly in '09, but I have no doubt MSL will still be a spectacular mission if it doesn't.
It does seem fishy that Dr. Stern found the money to design and add a sample cache to MSL at the same time there wasn't enough to finish an already approved instrument. |
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Sep 24 2007, 01:46 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-March 05 Member No.: 198 |
It does seem fishy that Dr. Stern found the money to design and add a sample cache to MSL at the same time there wasn't enough to finish an already approved instrument. Yes, it must be a bit hard to lecture others on the How-Not-Make-Cost-Overruns circuit when one has only just added an added to the cost of an expensive project oneself; and for something that really had more to do with a future project (and saving costs on it) than with the project one has added the cost on to. Given that it generally costs NASA a few million dollars to design and build a space pen or a space toothbrush I wonder how many millions that sample cache set it back? I imagine Stern didn't just pop in to his local Walmart and pick one up from the Discounted Space Items shelf. Hmm. You don't suppose...? ===== Stephen |
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