MSL schedule delay? |
MSL schedule delay? |
Sep 9 2008, 08:10 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
The most recent Aviation Week and Space Technology (9/8) has the following tidbit in a piece on NASA schedule delays:
"On the robotoic front, the testing schedule for a critical instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory -- dubbed SAM for Sample Analysis at Mars -- may delay launch of the advanced rover from its 2009 planetary window into 2011." -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 12:37 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 202 Joined: 9-September 08 Member No.: 4334 |
Ouch. I really, really hope they can finish building it. Most of the money's already been spent! Congress, please...
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Oct 4 2008, 04:59 AM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 96 Joined: 11-February 04 Member No.: 24 |
I have heard that $1.7 billion has already been spent on MSL. The two MER rovers cost $800 million total. For the cost of the MSL, we could have sent 4 MERs to Mars. I should add that this cost estimate is conservative given that much of the $800 million spent on MER was for technology development. With a new fleet of MERs, we could have spent the money simply cranking out clones of the original design. I suspect through economy of scale, we could have sent six MER clones to Mars for the money expended on MSL. In addition, multiple MERs stacked under one Atlas V launch faring could have been sent to Mars rather than single MERs individually launched on Delta-IIs as was done with MER A and B.
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Oct 4 2008, 09:06 AM
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#4
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
. I suspect through economy of scale, we could have sent six MER clones to Mars for the money expended on MSL. And not one of them with the instrumentation of MSL. And given that they struggled to find safe, scientifically compelling landing sites for two MER's - were are you sending the next six? What, realistically, could we learn with $1.whatever billion dollars of MER more than we have already. The MER design was the best we had for an '04 launch - it's done it's job. Time to move on. And seriously - if this debate comes up AGAIN - I'm going to start deleting posts. |
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