Slashdot Mirror
New Budget NASA Space Science Missions
pertinax18 writes "The New York Times is reporting that 'Some of the most highly promoted missions on NASA's scientific agenda would be postponed indefinitely or perhaps even canceled under the agency's new budget.' This looks to directly impact the types of missions that have been NASA's greatest successes like the Mars Rovers. 'Among the casualties in the budget, released last month, are efforts to look for habitable planets and perhaps life elsewhere in the galaxy, an investigation of the dark energy that seems to be ripping the universe apart, bringing a sample of Mars back to Earth and exploring for life under the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa'"
And on a more serious note...
While Europa remains a high priority for science missions, NASA has been re-evaluating the JIMO mission and concepts that have been proposed for Europa landers, and the latest opinion is that the scope of these missions would make them too costly for the amount of information returned. Additionally, JIMO relies too heavily on technology still in development for Griffin's comfort.
Also released last month, if I remember right, another slashdot article talking about said budget. Sorry, but I'm too lazy and slashdot's search feature is too crappy for me to look it up.
And so Dickens was right.
We have long been hoping that someday people would go back to the moon for more than just the Apollo-style touch-and-go missions, and now that looks like a reality more than it ever has since the end of the Apollo program.
And yet, it is the worst of times, too, for those who have been working very, very hard on programs that have nothing to do with the lunar program which have been very productive. I can only hope that this will pass, and that once the new vehicles have been developed and are flying we will be able to resume other science programs -- and face it, despite the setbacks like the Polar Lander and the Climate Observer, there have been a great many successes in the NASA robotic programs. The HST, the MER program, Cassini, the Great Observatories, Landsat, the list just goes on and on.
The Shuttle was and is a great idea, but the execution was flawed due to too much pennypinching during the design phase. It is an amazing idea and I hope that a safer reincarnation of the same thing returns, from either a government or from a private company. Do it right (manned flyback booster, a hardier orbiter, and so on) and put a better escape system on it.
But until things get smoothed out again, all I can do is wait, and hope that it all works out in the end. I've been a space buff for years, and I probably will be forever, and I know that the new expendables will probably be more inexpensive to operate plus the processing flow will hopefully be smoother.
Until then, though, it is the season of light and the season of darkness.
i am a soviet space shuttle
Uhura: Captain, I'm getting an urgent communique' from Starfleet HQ ... you know that 'five year mission' bit? ... ... ONE ... year ... mission ... to ... seek ... ... why?? .. have our orders. And you ha.. ... new life, new planets ... boldly going ...
Kirk: Put in on the main screen
Uhura: Aya
Commander: Jim...
Kirk: Commander Wilkes! What brings us the pleasure of your visit?
Commander: Jim, I have some bad news.
Kirk: Not another shippment of tribbles, heheh
Commander: Jim, this is serious. We're
Kirk: Yes
Commander: Well, we're going to have to cut it back to one
Kirk: What?
Commander: That's right - one year.
Kirk: (dramatic) Their
Commander: That give your 3 more months to clear up this planet destroyer thingy.
Kirk: But
Commander: It's the budget Jim. Starfleet's pretty strapped these days, what with the extra patrols in the Romulan sector
Kirk: I knew we never should have taken sides in their sectarian squabbling.
Commander: That doesn't matter. It's not for us to decide. We
Kirk: What about
Commander: It's "to boldy go" Jim. I know, we all feel as bad about it as you do. Prepare to wrap this up in 3 months. That's all.
Uhura: They've dropped connection, captain.
Kirk: Sulu, lay in a course for the Altairian sector
Spock: Captain, the plant destroyer is continuing toward the heavily populated...
Kirk: Nevermind that. If we've only got 3 months budget left we're going to the planet of the Altairian slave girls...
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Big ticket, no science programs like Bush II's 'man on mars' fantasy provide huge contracts to aerospace corporations that are big contributors. Programs that distribute a lot of small grants to thousands of scientists and graduate students don't produce contributions. Bush II has always been clear that job number one is taking care of the 'political base', and aerospace contractors have always been part of that.
OK, let's get this misconception out of the way.
misconception my ass.
While there are a lot of things that robots can do, there are a hell of a lot of things they can't. For instance, having a robot on Mars doing geology investigations is great, but all the stuff the rovers take a day to do could be done by a human in just a few minutes.
The amount of time it takes is irrelevant. How much is costs to get the job done is the point.
Robots can't react to new situations the way humans do, either; present one with something outside of its programming and it'll just sit there. And do you really trust the robot to not screw up?
Um... And like there is not a documented paper trail of people screwing up?
There are reasons why humans still drive trucks, fly planes, and operate trains.
What planet do you live on? You have never heard of robots flying planes or operating trains or driving trucks? The military uses flying planes now. Every other airport I go to uses robots to drive the trams. Nearly every distribution plant uses robots to truck goods from one end to the other.
You use the right tool for the right job. And the choice of a human over a robot can sometimes be just another case where you choose the right method for the right situation.
Bullshit
You use the tools you can afford! I would love to use a helicopter to transport me from my house to my work every day. It would save time, the technology is available, what's the downside? I cant afford it
I could hire a doctor to put a bandage on my kids "boo-boo". The doctor is certainly qualified, what's the downside? It's too expensive
I could send a dude to Mars to pick up rocks. "Dude" is certainly qualified, he can do it faster, what is the downside? do you really need the math?
"Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations"