InSight mission |
InSight mission |
Jan 7 2012, 08:29 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
the GEMS Discovery finalist has been renamed InSight and now has its own website: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/
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Aug 22 2012, 06:46 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 239 Joined: 18-December 07 From: New York Member No.: 3982 |
Any word on a launch vehicle? An Atlas V seems kind of overkill.
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Aug 22 2012, 04:32 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 723 Joined: 13-June 04 Member No.: 82 |
Any word on a launch vehicle? An Atlas V seems kind of overkill. It occurs to me that the Falcon 9 has a TMI mass capability of approximately 2,500 kg. Given the Mars InSight lander mass of 350 kg (and maybe double that amount for the cruse stage plus EDL hardware plus lander), you could launch 3 Mars InSight spacecraft to Mars for $50 million. How much extra would it cost to produce two extra flight-ready copies of the InSight spacecraft? (Remember that you just saved $50 million in launch costs over a Delta IV.) I am sure that it would cost more than $50 million to manufacture and test two extra copies, but it still sounds like a bargain to me. I imagine that the total cost would still exceed the Discovery cost cap, though. But even if you only send one copy, you would still have an extra $50 million saved by moving from Delta IV to Falcon 9, which could be used to upgrade the spacecraft. |
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Aug 22 2012, 11:42 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
It occurs to me that the Falcon 9 has a TMI mass capability of approximately 2,500 kg. Given the Mars InSight lander mass of 350 kg (and maybe double that amount for the cruse stage plus EDL hardware plus lander), you could launch 3 Mars InSight spacecraft to Mars for $50 million. Or one copy of InSight... and a really big lump of copper to thwack Mars with. |
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