Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Mar 24 2008, 09:11 PM
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#1
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 12-March 08 Member No.: 4062 |
Just found out today at a MER all-hands meeting that both MER and Odyssey will each be suffering an immediate $4 million budget cut to help defray the cost of MSL. Read more here: http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/200...rs-budget-cuts/
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Mar 25 2008, 12:59 AM
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#2
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Agreed. There are a lot of systemic factors to consider, and apologies for my initial outrage (I sent no nastygrams, though.) Main thing as I see it is that we don't know the budget wickets that have to be run through.
NASA is stand-alone, unlike most other Federal agencies that are part of huge departments, which with correspondingly large budgets have a lot more flexibility in rerouting funding. Eight million clams ain't much in the grand scheme of things, here. I'm--very--cautiously optimistic that there are some untapped means to ameliorate this. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 25 2008, 01:27 AM
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#3
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
apologies for my initial outrage (I sent no nastygrams, though.) Main thing as I see it is that we don't know the budget wickets that have to be run through. Hey, absolutely no need to apologise for that! We're all gnawing on our knuckles here, I'm sure! But the main thing is to take a deep breath and figure out how to challenge this, seriously and through the proper channels, so we don't come across as a bunch of angry internet space geeks who are p****d that their hi-tech toys are being taken away from them. Once we identify the right people to target, and agree on a common message, that will allow us to make a solid, practical and economic case for keeping the rovers funded, then we can gather allies around us and move forward. There may come a day when the rovers have to be abandoned. There may come a day when it simply makes no sense to keep throwing money at them. There may come a day when we have to accept that they've nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, and should go to sleep. But today is not that day. -------------------- |
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