MSL schedule delay? |
MSL schedule delay? |
Sep 9 2008, 08:10 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
The most recent Aviation Week and Space Technology (9/8) has the following tidbit in a piece on NASA schedule delays:
"On the robotoic front, the testing schedule for a critical instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory -- dubbed SAM for Sample Analysis at Mars -- may delay launch of the advanced rover from its 2009 planetary window into 2011." -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 12:37 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 202 Joined: 9-September 08 Member No.: 4334 |
Ouch. I really, really hope they can finish building it. Most of the money's already been spent! Congress, please...
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Oct 4 2008, 04:59 AM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 96 Joined: 11-February 04 Member No.: 24 |
I have heard that $1.7 billion has already been spent on MSL. The two MER rovers cost $800 million total. For the cost of the MSL, we could have sent 4 MERs to Mars. I should add that this cost estimate is conservative given that much of the $800 million spent on MER was for technology development. With a new fleet of MERs, we could have spent the money simply cranking out clones of the original design. I suspect through economy of scale, we could have sent six MER clones to Mars for the money expended on MSL. In addition, multiple MERs stacked under one Atlas V launch faring could have been sent to Mars rather than single MERs individually launched on Delta-IIs as was done with MER A and B.
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