NASA plans cuts, then spares Mars rovers
Space scientists and the Mars rover-loving public had quite a scare this week.
On Monday, scientists behind the solar-powered rovers Spirit and Opportunity said that they were planning to put the robots to sleep because of a NASA recommendation to trim $4 million from the program's budget. But a day later, the space agency said in a statement that neither of the robots would be shut down because of budget cuts, according to the Associated Press.
Taxpayer outcry must have been strong.
It's easy to see why: In their four years exploring the Red Planet, Spirit and Opportunity have produced scientific discoveries that have ignited the public imagination. For example, they've produced geologic evidence that water once flowed near or on the surface of Mars.
But operating rovers can be a pricey venture. Spirit and Opportunity were originally planned for missions lasting only three months, at a total cost of $820 million. Now, NASA pays about $20 million annually to keep the robots running, according to the AP.
Still, the cuts would have been a devil's bargain. NASA was trying to trim spending to cover the overrun costs of sending a new Hummer-sized rover to Mars in 2009, according to the AP. So the question remains: How will NASA shift its budget to launch its newfangled rover and keep up the twins? A request for comment from NASA was not immediately returned.
just another example of how our nation is losing it's mind....
"why NASA has such a hard time getting money."
George W. Bush maybe?
Once it was discovered why did it take over 100 years to really do something here, and near 300 years to make it really go?
People want return on the $, its like medical science, there are diseases out there that are not researched since they return little finacial gain.
There was a cancer medicine, not that long ago that the top drug makers did not pursue because the patents where open.
Its all about money.
If you can find a fiscally viable return, then you will see money spent.
In the 60's and early 70's the cold war paid for space. The thought that the commies would do it was enough to divert money.
Today there is little that can be done in near earth orbit or exploration that can return a $.
If someone could find a fiscally viable reason to go to mars. Then you would see people line up.
If you could say get oil from mars at an input cost below $20 a barrel returned to earth. I bet you we would be there next year.
But beyond science? What is the reason to go?
I would love to see more myself.. but.. it all comes down to return on investment.
Which makes me a very sad puppy
about the work it takes to staff the control centers, receive and
process the data, and keep the telemetry running.
Receiving and processing signals from a Mars rover is not like
changing the channel on your satellite TV. It's a lot harder to do
than you think.
One of the most confounding problems, described in a paper
called "Unskilled and Unaware Of It," is that a person who does
not have the skills to do a particular job *also* lacks the skills to
assess how hard the job is to do. So people who can't do
something tend to believe that doing it is easy, even when it's
not.
Keeping the rovers running, receiving and analyzing the data
they send, solving problems, revising their programming, and
planning new routes for them to take requires the combined
efforts of more than 300 full-time staff.
The signals are received by an enormous, worldwide network of
huge antennas called the Deep Space Network. Because the
earth rotates, antennas must be positioned all over the earth in
order to receive a constant stream of data. Because the data is
being sent by low-power transmitters over great distances, the
receiving antennas are huge. The Deep Space Network relies on
full-time ground crews stationed in the US, Spain, and Australia.
The Mars rovers send back terabytes of data, which must be
processed, error-corrected, analyzed, and stored. You can not
just walk down to Circuit City and buy the kind of storage we're
talking about off the showroom floor.
The rovers' software has been updated several times since the
rovers were launched. Full-time teams of programmers and
engineers monitor their performance, write new software, and
figure out how to work around equipment failures and
malfunctions--which is a lot harder to do than you think.
$20 million a year is chump change for the kind of return we're
getting. By way of comparison, at the moment we're spending
roughly $350 million *per day* in Iraq.
spent funding social welfare programs.
$20m a year to operate robots that have already been in place,
and only intended to last 3 months? what are we sending
nanobots in secret missions to repair them or something?
$20m PER year for something that is ALREADY THERE. that
means the money is administration and contractor cost gorging
on taxpayer money.
I would be thrilled if you can come up with a cheaper way to assemble a team of world class engineers and scientists as well as the communications infrastructure that is needed to operate these rovers. The people who work on the rovers do it because they want to. They can easily fetch more money working for Google or some industrial lab.
Oh, the Stupid! It HURTS!
It's sad to see where our government's priorities lie.
While NASA's pricetag on these rovers seems extreme, it's nothing compared to the figures referenced above.
All as our economy goes to "hell in a handbasket"... and it's only going to get worse... Much worse.
There are so many positive things we could be using all this money for... renewable energies, space exploration, protecting our intelectual property, and protecting our people from both internal and external corruption.
In the end, all you can do is do your best... VOTE and make your voice be heard, and don't resist LIFE! Accept every moment as if you had chosen it!
Keep up the good fight.
stamp, head start, and a half dozen other entitlement programs
that overlap, duplicate and step on each other, the money spent in
Iraq is negligible.
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.' http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In TheUnited States'. http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping
$ 338.3 BILLION
DOLLARS A YEAR
other words, paying for the rovers is equivalent to 84 minutes of
war.
Clearly, we are getting our money's worth.
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by searl2112
June 10, 2008 12:36 AM PDT
- You ALL STUPID???? NASA SAID THE ATMOSPHERE WAS 8.5 mbar...ROFL DO YOU ALL THINK A CHUTE WOULD WORK IN NEAR VACUUM??? lol the atmosphere is 824.7 mbar
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(36 Comments)ANYONE EVER THINK TO ASK WHAT THE OFFICAL READINGS FOR MARS ATMOSPHERE IS? OR ARE YOU ALL GOING TO SIT THERE AND THINK YOU KNOW THE ANSWER?