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 24 2008, 11:07 PM
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#2
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I'm writing emails to people to see what, if anything, can be done from a public voice perspective.
Not like this. Please not like this. |
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Mar 25 2008, 02:39 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2542 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
Not like this. Please not like this. At the risk of being virtually pilloried by this crowd, would you prefer that they killed a rover through miscommanding, like VL1 or MGS? This is a pretty obvious "Washington Monument" ploy, not worth being that upset about yet. That said, does anyone think much more good science is going to be coming out of Spirit? -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Mar 25 2008, 05:11 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Admin Posts: 468 Joined: 11-February 04 From: USA Member No.: 21 |
That said, does anyone think much more good science is going to be coming out of Spirit? Since the story came out today, I've been thinking about which activities Spirit would lose by going into hibernation now. Here's a short list of what would be lost from Pancam alone: Tau profiles: Both rovers have a very data-dense profile going back 1500 sols with new values being recorded nearly every sol. Hibernating until October would mean losing ~200 sols worth of data, and by doing so Spirit may miss the first signs of dust activity coming out of winter (depending on when in October they wake Spirit back up). Full-filter 360 stereo panorama: The McMurdo panorama, taken last winter by Spirit, was THE most detailed/lossless imaging campaign from a single location for either rover. This year's Bonestell panorama would be similar and has already begun, but we'll lose that if Spirit goes into hibernation now. Long term monitoring: Including the El Dorado monitoring campaign (which showed some dramatic changes last winter) and some of the horizon/sky sequences I'm missing many other possible activities, but even on the strength of these scientific opportunities alone, they should find $4 million dollars to keep a great project alive. |
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