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NASA Pondering Two Public Contests To Build Small Space Exploration Satellites

coondoggie writes "NASA today said it was looking into developing two new Centennial Challenge competitions that would let the public design, build and deliver small satellites known as Cubesats capable of operations and experiments near the moon and beyond. The first challenge will focus on finding innovative ways to allow deep space communications with small spacecraft, while the second focuses on primary propulsion for small spacecraft."

3 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Beta by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll join the crowd and help post in every thread that pops up, and upvote all the other comments I can find doing the same.

    Slashdot Beta is not fixable - it is trash code that should be abandoned as a "lessons learned" exercise. It's not even a close decision - it's pretty much unanimous amongst the users - the ones that provide 90+% of any meaningful content on this particular site in particular.

    If this advice that everyone is giving isn't honored by the local 'beta' admins, I believe it's time to start communicating with the people in charge, and pulling the levers of power a bit - and hopefully get these folks a stern talking to about what they were throwing away.

    Shorter version: THE BETA SUCKS. LOSE IT.

    Ryan Fenton

    1. Re:Beta by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I *LOVE* Slashdot. That's why I have spent so much time creating comments that I hope add value to the discourse, and put so much effort into my otherwise tenuous self-restraint regarding flaming. I come here to read comments, and to add value to the comment trees. I am happy for Dice to make a profit selling ads on the content our community creates by playing host.

      That is a really good trade for all of us, Dice. Don't screw it up.

      As for my personal #1 gripe: Don't require Javascript to read comments. OpenStreetMaps is content that begs to be browsed dynamically. Reading a comment tree is an almost entirely static endeavor. Keeping Javascript disabled on most sites is something I'm guessing a large portion of the audience here does. And remember: The audience creates the content. Lose one, you lose the other.

      The Spirit of Mohdri Dragon Lives!

  2. There will be no more real discussion here until.. by drussell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This Beta garbage dies in a burning ball of galactic-temperature-infused inferno...

    I should have seen this coming for months and set up a slashdot clone we could all move to... Hmm, shortsighted!

    Shut it off... Turn it off NOW! Bad, BAD experiment!