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Next-Gen Mars Rover In Danger of Cancellation

Posted by timothy on from the infinite-possibilities-finite-taxpayers dept.

OriginalArlen writes "NASA's next-generation rover, the nuclear-powered, laser-equipped Mars Science Laboratory is reported to be at a serious risk of cancellation due to budget and schedule overruns, including non-delivery of vital parts by a subcontractor. Costs are running over $2B so far, and the already thin schedule of Mars missions planned for the next decade — with budget ring-fenced for an outer-planets flagship mission — is in danger of further cuts."

7 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Nuclear Powered? Laser Armed? by R2.0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anyone else thinking that this is just a smokescreen to develop the most awesomest Battlebot ever?

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  2. Re:Love space, but... by pilgrim23 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
    Mayor: What do you mean, biblical?
    Ray: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor... real Wrath-of-God-type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies.
    Venkman: Rivers and seas boiling!
    Egon: 40 years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanos.
    Winston:The dead rising from the grave!
    Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together... mass hysteria!

    --
    - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  3. Not to late to save it by ciaohound · · Score: 3, Funny

    nuclear-powered, laser-equipped

    Couldn't it just be repurposed to fight terrorists?

    --
    Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
    1. Re:Not to late to save it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      They tried that. However, NASA Funding Engineers realized that if they were to pitch this project as a way to fight space terrorism then the project would be flooded with so much cash that the engineers would actually, literally drown in cash.

      Interestingly they also considered pushing it as "a way to fight space terrorism that hardly works at all, it will be very bad at fighting space terrorism but that's what it is for". It turns out that this actually increased the drowning problem several fold.

      Weird.

  4. Re:Love space, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    There are more intelligent ways of going about it.

    You must be new here.

  5. Re:Love space, but... by Digital+End · · Score: 2, Funny

    We don't have time to spend money on microbiology, we have more pressing matters, like half the country having smallpox and polio!

    --
    Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
  6. Re:700 billion by Urkki · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, that's only $350 *illion difference, so it sounds like they're paying most of the bailout with a Mars rover. Sounds reasonable.