Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Mar 24 2008, 09:11 PM
Post
#1
|
|
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/
|
|
|
Mar 24 2008, 11:07 PM
Post
#2
|
|
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. |
|
|
Mar 25 2008, 02:39 AM
Post
#3
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Mar 25 2008, 04:20 AM
Post
#4
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
That said, does anyone think much more good science is going to be coming out of Spirit? There's definitely a spectrum along which missions fall according to how much more science a working craft can provide once it's done the once-over. Magellan obviously could have provided SOME science from additional radar mapping, but it was also obviously a diminishing return. Or a hail mary effort to dubious ends (like looking for mass movement). In principle, Spirit could do a number of things, over an arbitrarily long period of time, for scientific gain. We don't know how much more distance it can traverse without failing. It could perhaps do some things outside the expected, like survey thoroughly for meteorites, or set off on a quixotic drive towards some [very] far-off landmark on the off chance that it would survive the trek. Perhaps even a return to Bonneville on the off-chance that some layering exists that couldn't be seen from the perspectives gained early in the mission. This is, of course, all in the diminishing returns department. It's hard to say how much the science/dollar is, but then, that's hard to say with a newly minted mission as well. |
|
|
Mar 25 2008, 06:25 AM
Post
#5
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
"... Magellan obviously could have provided SOME science from additional radar mapping,..."
False. Magellan's radar had FAILED. An electronics problem that changed from occassional-intermittent to constant (as I recall) wiped out Magellan's ability to do imaging. (It put the radar equivalent of a microphone-feedback-squeel in the transmitter or receiver or something). Magellan had aerobraked (in an engineering demonstration that paved the way for all subsequent Mars orbiters) into a low near-circular orbit and raised periapsis. From that orbit, radio tracking of the spacecraft provided a pole-to-pole uniform quality gravity anomaly map not possible from it's original orbit. The spacecraft was finally de-orbited in a series aerobraking dynamics tests as it's solar panels were failing and the spacecraft was about to go "power negative", due to solder joint failing in the solar panels caused by 8 venus years of thermal cycling, sped-up in the low circular orbit. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 24th September 2024 - 06:00 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |