MSL Cost Caps and de-scoping - Sept '07 |
MSL Cost Caps and de-scoping - Sept '07 |
Sep 16 2007, 07:43 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
Very bad news.
It's certainly the best way to run the business of cost overruns but even if we are used to these kind of consequences, it's always sad to hear. NASA cuts LANL sampler from next Mars rover http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2007/09/...news/news02.txt Edit : And also... http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/sto...p;channel=space http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.sp....html?pid=25415 ... removal of the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) and the zoom capability on the mast camera... ... SAM and CheMin were cost-capped... |
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Sep 21 2007, 05:48 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 242 Joined: 21-December 04 Member No.: 127 |
Exactly. My comment wasn't to be snarky...I think there is a very good argument that the science return from a sample return mission that collects the best bits of MSL rocks would be greatly superior to a sample return mission that cannot be initiated until the samples are collected.
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Sep 21 2007, 08:51 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 50 Joined: 7-July 06 From: Selden, NY Member No.: 960 |
I think that the total amount of money available is only part of the equation. The other part is the money allocated for each instrument and how much you're willing to allow overruns. By the looks of it ChemCam is pretty far over budget and finally Stern just said "Enough already." Don't get me wrong, I think losing ChemCam would be a tremendous blow to MSL--especially its remote sensing capabilities. But you have to at least give Stern credit for having a consistent philosophy when it comes to funding science with a limited pot of money. In some sense, he gets paid to make tough decisions.
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Sep 21 2007, 09:27 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2511 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
By the looks of it ChemCam is pretty far over budget... What's your source on that? All the news articles say is that there is a $75M overrun. It doesn't say where it is, and since $75M is more than the entire developmental budget for the payload (see the 2007 budget), do you think it's likely to be all ChemCam's overrun? Disclaimer: this message is entirely based on data from public sources. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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