NASA’s Budget Cuts Hit a Rover
It turns out that (according to this blog entry at CNN) NASA’s budget cuts and cost overruns in another Mars program now mean that some scientists in the Mars Rover program will lose their jobs and that the Mars Spirit Rover will be shut down (hibernated) to save money. It may be awakened again (presumably if the money ever comes back).
So… we cut jobs at NASA, put a working spacecraft to sleep, and this benefits the country how? Is that saved money going to education? Health care? Human services? Skeptical cat is skeptical.
From other stories, it looks like only part of the tale is being told. Are the rovers being cut? Well, yes…but…because the MSL mission (still being built) keeps cropping up cost overruns. JPL is a great place, but missions seem to have this happen to them (see Dawn, for example). Poor management? A tendency to underestimate costs in order to “sell” the mission (and then an assumption that once the mission is approved and costs creep back in they’ll be covered)?
It’s not just “we’re cutting because we’re evil”.
The money does not appear to be going to health, etc. It appears to be going to a different Mars program.
See:
http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2008/03/give_us_what_we.html
…for example of some of the details.
Fred,
Yes, I agree with you, which is why I am careful NOT to point the finger of evil doom so much as I am to raise questions. It’s disappointing to see this happen, and I suppose that disappointment rings through in this entry in particular.
I have a great admiration for JPL, always have. And, cost overruns DO happen, even in the best of programs. We’re engineering for difficult situations. However, I wonder why it has to be that working missions get cut — in the ideal world, NASA would have some cushion to fall back on so that we con’t have to cannibalize ongoing missions to pay for new ones.
You make good points. Thanks for sharing that!
Good news…sort of. The only question is, if they ain’t cutting from the MER’s, where will they cut from?
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1ExT948JtSH7ZaYSH6OG-hP1hUQD8VKICKG0
“NASA: Mars Rovers Won’t Be Cut”
“NASA says it has absolutely no plan to turn off either of the Mars Rovers because of budget cuts.
“NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet.
“The move comes a day after scientists at the agency’s robotics center said they would need to hibernate one of the twin Mars robots and limit the duties of the other because their budget was being cut by $4 million.
“That announcement was based on a letter NASA sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena last week.
“But NASA is saying in a statement Tuesday that neither of the rovers will be shut down.”