Mars Sample Return |
Mars Sample Return |
Apr 17 2024, 02:23 AM
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#556
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1582 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
Is it just because, well you know, its Mars? Is it the possible life thing? Is it programmatic inertia? Presumably a lot can be learned, yadda yadda. But yeah, it's Mars, it's the next big obvious thing to do, and NASA et al should do it first after the two big rovers. I do sort of feel for whomever was calling for innovative mission designs with proven technologies, though. |
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Apr 17 2024, 02:24 AM
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#557
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Member Group: Members Posts: 228 Joined: 14-January 22 Member No.: 9140 |
Mars Sample Return is a huge budget item that has seen its funding rise and fall, which puts a block on other priorities, so that alone makes it news, while a possible mission that has never gotten authorization is almost by definition not news (or very minor news).
An outer planet orbiter will also take years to produce any results in the best case, and I don't think the public imagination would see it as a potential ground-shaker until and unless it found something surprising. If you polled people on the street, I doubt that many know that missions are on the way to the Mercury, Venus (planned), and jovian systems. But Mars Sample Return would definitely occupy some news cycles, even before the first pebble got under a microscope. |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 4th May 2024 - 02:40 PM |
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