NASA Dawn asteroid mission told to ‘stand down’ |
NASA Dawn asteroid mission told to ‘stand down’ |
Nov 7 2005, 03:55 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
NASA Dawn Asteroid Mission Told To ‘Stand Down’ .
The decision to stand down, according to SPACE.com sources, appears related to budget-related measures and workforce cutbacks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051107_dawn_qown.html Rakhir |
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Nov 20 2005, 08:36 AM
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There sure is. To repeat: let ANY mission get away with that, and everyone else will also want it (as with the Epicure Dining at Crewe who found Quite A Large Mouse in his Stew). Our concern must be not for flying any ONE mission, but for making sure the Discovery Program as a whole properly succeeds -- which it can't if it allows incorrect or downright fraudulent cost estimates when it's selecting the damn missions in the first place. (Dantzler sounded downright exasperated when he was talking about how the Kepler team have been allowed to get away with their own huge cost overrun -- but, as he said, "It's not my problem anymore.")
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Nov 21 2005, 05:59 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Nov 20 2005, 01:36 AM) There sure is. To repeat: let ANY mission get away with that, and everyone else will also want it (as with the Epicure Dining at Crewe who found Quite A Large Mouse in his Stew). Our concern must be not for flying any ONE mission, but for making sure the Discovery Program as a whole properly succeeds -- which it can't if it allows incorrect or downright fraudulent cost estimates when it's selecting the damn missions in the first place. Yep. Letting a mission get away with this seriously is like letting some athletes use steroids, because it would be a shame to keep such a fine physical specimen from being in the game. What you do with that decision is eliminate the rule. And in the mission-over-budget case, you eliminate the budget. Incidentally, an enormous number of projects, often governmentally funded, have gotten to break the rule. Examples are rampant -- Army tanks, Air Force fighters, Massachusetts freeways. The end result is almost certainly more harmful than is made up for with the good of one tank, one fighter, one tunnel. Dawn is a nice mission if it happens, but it's not worth killing the Discovery program over. Because the next time around, you'd have someone promising Venus sample return under a $400mm cap, winning the competition, then saying "Oops" when they run over that before the thing is 1/10 built. |
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