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Amount of fuel onboard, Potential life expectancy?
briv1016
post Jul 1 2008, 05:53 AM
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Assuming that there are no MGS type anomalies and funding holds out (according to NASA's FY09 budget, the current extension ends in September); how much longer can Odyssey remain operational with the fuel onboard?

(I know you guys are strict about starting new threads, but I couldn't find any other thread related to this topic.)
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Mariner9
post Jul 6 2008, 05:26 PM
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I rather doubt having 3 operational orbiters and 3 landers is something that is likely to be the norm for the next decade.

Aside from the fact that Mars Express was a one-shot mission, I think the main culprit is cost.

Looking at the ballpark cost figures for the Mars missions,

MGS - 250 million
Mars Odyssey - 300 million
MER - 800 million
MRO - 700 million
Mars Phoenix (scout) - 400 million (really closer to 500 when you consider they got the base spacecraft for free).

Then looking at the future (that is far from set in stone, and is shifting as we speak)

MSL - 1.9 billion
Mars Scout 2011 (now 2013) - 425 million
MSO 2013 (now 2016 +) - 700 million
Mars Exobiology Rover - 1.5 billion
Mars Networking mission - 1 billion plus



Roughly speaking, we seem to have left an era where the mission costs were 300-700 million, and went into one where they are 450 - 1.5 billion.

In other words, we got our current infrastructure at mission costs roughly half what the upcoming missions look likely to cost.

So, while on the surface of things it makes sense to argue to "keep the mission rate up", the problem is that the upcoming missions are much more expensive. If we were talking Mars Surveyor and Mars Scout missions, it might be possible under the NASA budgets. But I just don't see how they can keep launching a mission every 26 months if they keep increasing the cost per mission.
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Posts in this topic
- briv1016   Amount of fuel onboard   Jul 1 2008, 05:53 AM
- - nprev   ...Don't think that anyone is strict about new...   Jul 1 2008, 06:12 AM
- - djellison   http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/newsroom/.../2004...   Jul 1 2008, 07:40 AM
- - TheChemist   It probably is Doug. Citing from the above article...   Jul 1 2008, 09:36 AM
|- - MahFL   MGS died......   Jul 1 2008, 10:56 AM
|- - brellis   "The Odyssey mission is in excellent health, ...   Dec 16 2010, 06:53 AM
- - nprev   Yeah, and that's my point. Not getting a warm ...   Jul 1 2008, 03:58 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (nprev @ Jul 1 2008, 04:58 PM) Not ...   Jul 1 2008, 04:11 PM
|- - andrea   One thing to consider is that not all relay capabi...   Jul 2 2008, 05:50 AM
- - nprev   Hope so...but as an old crusty avionics maintenanc...   Jul 1 2008, 04:24 PM
- - elakdawalla   Thanks guys, this'll be this week or next week...   Jul 1 2008, 11:03 PM
- - briv1016   Thanks guys.   Jul 2 2008, 12:19 AM
- - Mariner9   I rather doubt having 3 operational orbiters and 3...   Jul 6 2008, 05:26 PM
- - PhilCo126   Mars Odyssey performed well (Launched April 2001, ...   Oct 31 2008, 03:34 PM
|- - MahFL   It's good till at least September 2010. ...   Oct 31 2008, 03:56 PM
- - nprev   I don't see why not. An operational mission is...   Oct 31 2008, 03:53 PM
- - PhilCo126   Great that made my sol Remember Mars Global Su...   Oct 31 2008, 04:02 PM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Oct 31 2008, 04:02 PM)...   Dec 25 2008, 03:15 PM
- - nprev   Yeah...but then again, similar sorts of things cou...   Dec 25 2008, 10:24 PM
|- - tedstryk   My point is that it didn't have anything to do...   Dec 26 2008, 05:01 AM
|- - rlorenz   QUOTE (tedstryk @ Dec 26 2008, 12:01 AM) ...   Dec 26 2008, 04:33 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (rlorenz @ Dec 26 2008, 04:33 PM) S...   Dec 26 2008, 06:47 PM
- - nprev   Hmm. There are a lot of ways to think about this. ...   Dec 26 2008, 09:36 PM
- - tty   In my experience the critical resource in keeping ...   Dec 27 2008, 03:09 PM
- - kenny   Hard to know quite where to put this post, but ...   Sep 17 2012, 10:52 AM


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