MSL reasons for delay - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

MSL reasons for delay

mcaplinger View Member Profile	Mar 4 2009, 03:33 PM Post #1
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2549 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497	I wanted to make sure that everyone interested sees Adrian Brown's articles at http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1319/1 and http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1318/1 about the technical and budgetary problems with MSL that led to the launch slip. While I can't claim to be privy to the budgetary and political issues at the mission level, the technical discussion seems like a fair summary of the situation as I understand it, at least as good a one as can be gathered from public sources. People in other forums have complained about errors in these articles, but without giving specific examples or providing any factual basis for their objections. I don't find that very useful. If there are real flaws in this account, I'd be quite interested to know what they are. p.s. I guess we need to change the name of this subforum. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.

Replies

SpaceListener View Member Profile	Jul 13 2009, 08:22 PM Post #2
Member Group: Members Posts: 279 Joined: 19-August 07 Member No.: 3299	dtolman, I think that this might be a leak news from news media since it has no further detail information about the reason. If NASA informs this, I hope it would be well covered and explained. About this I have many questions and I am not able to know what is the real reason. It would be to too early to get well acquainted. I think that NASA must know it perfectly whether if it is or not necessary after studying their cons and pros. The main electrical energy would be based of nuclear and the solar ones would be interpreted as an supplemental and not as critical energy. On the other hand, it would to be insufficient to supply an extra needed energy due to a new requirements, or present instruments that might need an additional not planned electrical energy needs. An additional battery capacity would be the most sounding acceptable but up to here, it is not worth to further discuss without knowing their cons/pros.

Posts in this topic

mcaplinger MSL reasons for delay Mar 4 2009, 03:33 PM

djellison Thanks for linking to these Mike - they're ver... Mar 4 2009, 03:41 PM

ElkGroveDan QUOTE (djellison @ Mar 4 2009, 07:41 AM) ... Mar 4 2009, 04:49 PM

algorimancer QUOTE (djellison @ Mar 4 2009, 09:41 AM) ... Mar 5 2009, 08:16 PM

mcaplinger QUOTE (algorimancer @ Mar 5 2009, 12:16 P... Mar 5 2009, 09:34 PM

ElkGroveDan QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Mar 5 2009, 01:34 PM)... Mar 5 2009, 10:36 PM

mcaplinger Forgive me if I lose patience with armchair engine... Mar 5 2009, 11:20 PM

algorimancer QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Mar 5 2009, 03:34 PM)... Mar 6 2009, 01:41 PM

jmcdesign "In retrospect they might simply have placed ... Mar 6 2009, 04:23 PM

dvandorn Yeah -- I've been meaning to ask when Phoenix ... Mar 4 2009, 06:24 PM

tedstryk I was thinking (and still think) that it would be ... Mar 4 2009, 08:58 PM

ugordan QUOTE (dvandorn @ Mar 4 2009, 07:24 PM) I... Mar 4 2009, 09:04 PM

monitorlizard I had also seen the Adrian Brown essays. In his r... Mar 5 2009, 03:58 PM

stevesliva You're forgiven. It is armchair-knee-jerk refl... Mar 6 2009, 12:06 AM

centsworth_II QUOTE (stevesliva @ Mar 5 2009, 07:06 PM)... Mar 6 2009, 02:14 AM

mcaplinger QUOTE (centsworth_II @ Mar 5 2009, 06:14 ... Mar 6 2009, 03:43 AM

djellison You're thinking of the Stardust Navcam. That... Mar 6 2009, 12:18 AM

stevesliva To be clear, I did not mean to imply MSSS had some... Mar 6 2009, 12:35 AM

lyford "Less moving parts!?!?!" Th... Mar 6 2009, 01:53 AM

dvandorn Let's face it, guys -- anything that has movin... Mar 6 2009, 03:27 AM

djellison Of course, we have ChemCam as an ultra high res im... Mar 6 2009, 04:41 PM

Cruzeiro do Sul One question about the RTG in MSL: in front of the... May 6 2009, 12:45 PM

SpaceListener QUOTE (Cruzeiro do Sul @ May 6 2009, 06:4... May 8 2009, 12:42 AM

monitorlizard http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/technology/po... May 8 2009, 09:56 AM

Cruzeiro do Sul 5% is a small amount of lost, so we can hope that ... May 11 2009, 02:34 PM

climber You'll be interested in this .pdf presentation... Jul 11 2009, 10:38 AM

SpaceListener And hope that these probably existence of solar pa... Jul 11 2009, 03:06 PM

centsworth_II QUOTE (SpaceListener @ Jul 11 2009, 10:06... Jul 11 2009, 03:48 PM

mcaplinger QUOTE (centsworth_II @ Jul 11 2009, 07:48... Jul 13 2009, 08:24 PM

helvick This isn't completely true - vertically placed... Jul 13 2009, 09:51 PM

djellison QUOTE (SpaceListener @ Jul 11 2009, 04:06... Jul 11 2009, 04:45 PM

centsworth_II QUOTE (djellison @ Jul 11 2009, 11:45 AM)... Jul 11 2009, 06:44 PM

dtolman QUOTE (SpaceListener @ Jul 11 2009, 10:06... Jul 13 2009, 07:48 PM

dtolman Isn't it a little late in the game to figure o... Jul 13 2009, 07:55 PM

SFJCody I hope there's a TV documentary crew following... Jul 13 2009, 08:06 PM

SpaceListener dtolman, I think that this might be a leak news f... Jul 13 2009, 08:22 PM

dtolman SpaceListener, The main source of this seems to be... Jul 14 2009, 01:25 PM

mcaplinger QUOTE (dtolman @ Jul 14 2009, 06:25 AM) I... Jul 14 2009, 01:53 PM

dtolman mcaplinger - thanks for the clarification. It can ... Jul 14 2009, 02:17 PM

mcaplinger QUOTE (dtolman @ Jul 14 2009, 06:17 AM) D... Jul 14 2009, 02:26 PM

Enceladus75 I think MSL was just too big a leap, technology wi... Jul 16 2009, 01:52 AM

BrianL I would say that Spirit and Oppy were a much bigge... Jul 16 2009, 02:37 AM

dvandorn Brian? Read "Roving Mars" by Steve Squy... Jul 16 2009, 02:55 AM

mcaplinger QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jul 15 2009, 07:55 PM) ... Jul 16 2009, 03:42 AM

nprev To be fair (and not to stray OT), major projects o... Jul 16 2009, 04:19 AM

dvandorn Very true, Nick. Especially for revolutionary pro... Jul 16 2009, 04:40 AM

MahFL Often a low estimate is the only way to get a proj... Jul 16 2009, 12:45 PM

stevesliva QUOTE (MahFL @ Jul 16 2009, 08:45 AM) Loo... Jul 16 2009, 03:29 PM

tedstryk The problem is that MSL is so much larger in terms... Jul 16 2009, 06:50 PM

mcaplinger QUOTE (tedstryk @ Jul 16 2009, 10:50 AM) ... Jul 17 2009, 01:59 AM

tedstryk Right, but that means that x percent overrun is tw... Jul 17 2009, 03:28 AM

BrianL I wasn't suggesting the MERs had an easy road.... Jul 16 2009, 12:50 PM

climber I agree Ted, but if the beast works, who knows wha... Jul 16 2009, 07:10 PM

SFJCody I guess another reason MSL has to be such a big ve... Jul 16 2009, 07:26 PM

imipak QUOTE (Kierkegaard @ 19th century)"Life ... Jul 16 2009, 08:49 PM

centsworth_II This is the kind of torturous process that leads t... Jul 16 2009, 08:55 PM

peter59 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8168954.... Jul 27 2009, 08:17 AM

tedstryk QUOTE (peter59 @ Jul 27 2009, 09:17 AM) h... Aug 20 2009, 05:45 PM

mcaplinger Hadn't seen anyone discussing the MSL status r... Oct 16 2009, 11:02 PM

Oersted Yes, thx so much for digging up this info, I avidl... Oct 18 2009, 10:13 PM

James Sorenson Ohhh Thanks for pointing that out!, I had not ... Oct 17 2009, 01:34 AM

peter59 More problems, greater costs. This is starting to ... Oct 21 2009, 01:39 PM

MahFL Ahh crap, how unlucky, lets hope things turn out o... Oct 21 2009, 08:20 PM

djellison Given the litigious nature of US law and pending c... Oct 22 2009, 07:15 AM

nprev (sorry...we need a "deeply-embarrassed-'c... Oct 22 2009, 07:25 AM

Holder of the Two Leashes Guess I should've added a few "if"s ... Oct 22 2009, 02:11 PM

djellison As a guidance - if you have to prefix your post wi... Oct 23 2009, 06:23 PM

climber MSL Readiness to proceed review: http://nasawatch.... Nov 18 2009, 11:06 PM

Greg Hullender QUOTE (climber @ Nov 18 2009, 03:06 PM) M... Nov 18 2009, 11:16 PM

elakdawalla I split out some posts about delivery of component... Jun 12 2010, 02:00 AM

« Next Oldest · MSL · Next Newest »