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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#1
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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 26 2007, 01:12 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 8-May 05 Member No.: 381 |
This is from a recent MEPAG article titled "Mars Science Laboratory Project Changes Respond to Cost Increases, Keep Mars Program on Track":
MSL RESCOPED PAYLOAD SEPTEMBER 2007 MastCam // Zoom capability deleted and cost capped MAHLI // Cost capped MARDI // Instrument deleted APXS // No change ChemCam // No funding beyond FY'07 after a 77% cost growth CheMin // Cost capped after a 160% cost growth SAM // Cost capped after a 60% cost growth RAD // No change DAN // No change REMS // No change The change to the three imaging instruments is "After a combined 60% cost growth" to MastCam, MAHLI, and MARDI. These are considerably worse overruns than I had imagined, but in fairness I would say that these are very ambitious instruments of types never flown before, so estimating their development costs must have been extremely difficult. I doubt any team deliberately low-balled their initial estimate. |
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Sep 26 2007, 03:01 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2517 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
The change to the three imaging instruments is "After a combined 60% cost growth" to MastCam, MAHLI, and MARDI. These are considerably worse overruns than I had imagined... At best this is a vast oversimplification of how and why costs evolved. I think you can expect some public discussion of this in the near future. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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