Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Odyssey and MER Budgets Cut |
Mar 24 2008, 09:11 PM
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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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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, 01:12 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 754 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 1700 |
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Mar 25 2008, 08:25 AM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
hmm, maybe a sponsor can come to the rescue, but does anyone really want to see Spirit renamed "The Google Rover"? Actually, let's not be so quick to dismiss any offers like that. Is there anyone here who would object to Spirit or Opportunity being part-sponsored by Google or some other company if it meant their mission continued? Would it be such a bad thing? This might have to be the way things are in this cash-strapped future. Here's an idea, and a semi-serious suggestion: let Google put a Google logo on MSL, close to the calibration dial - or make the Google logo part of the calibration dial - if that kind of advertising would bring in a contribution that would allow the MERs to work on. Looking at this practically, the money we're talking about here is very small change to today's business community, and sports community too. Here in the UK football players are "bought" and "sold" for tens of millions of pounds and a lot, lot more. Here and across the world, I'm sure, business people spend fortunes on extravagances, and $4m would be what we call "back of the sofa" money to them. Business people have already spent millions of pounds going into space as space tourists. The money is out there for this, if it comes down to sponsorship of some kind, I'm sure it is. The question is, what would such a sponsor get back in return? Worth thinking about, I believe. -------------------- |
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