[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

NASA Announces Public Meeting for Proposed Mars Mission
MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-154
October 4, 2006

[Mariner9]

Yes, I also noticed a mention of the mission using either an RTG or solar panel power. I have trouble imagining that JPL is still pondering that move this late into the design.... so have to wonder if that is also a political move on their part to give the impression that if they are indeed going with RTG, that the decision was carefully weighed from the engineering standpoint and they didn't just jump to that conclusion too quickly.

The sucess of the MERs might be playing a part in all this. The conventional engineering wisdom before the mission landed was that solar panels would loose effectiveness over time as the dust collected. At 2.5 years and going strong, MER is putting that concern to rest. So even if using an RTG is still a better choice for MSL, it gives ammunition to the anti-nuke crowd to point at MER and say that solar can do the job.

I hope they go with an RTG... because we all know that in spite of the improvement in solar cells over the last 20 years, many of the outer planets missions still need nuclear power. Loosing this one because of politics would bode ill for future missions.