Posted on 03/25/2008 9:54:38 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - 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NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet.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.
Cool. It would be foolish to shut down one of our most successful exploration missions of all time while they’re still working.
Its amazing these little guys are still running.... I look forward to the day if it ever comes where our Astronauts get to say hi to one or both of you little buggers in person.
What was the ultimate factor of safety on these things? Safety to say it is better than 3?
Someone’s playing poker here.
That was my initial thought too. I do wonder though, if they are actually uncovering new data each day now. If they are I would support continuing to fund them. That makes more sense than having to spend hundreds of millions to get other rovers to the planet. If not, the yield isn’t that important at this stage, perhaps it is time to pull the plug.
The program has been very successful. I applaud that success. I favor manned missions, and have advocated more focus on that.
We need something far more wide ranging for future exploration. Personally I want to take a look into the caves on mars.
When are they going to send a probe to Uranus?
That thought came to my mind as well.
NASA: “Give us the funding, or we shoot the rover!”
Paintings? LOL
I would think that would be a fertile place to look around.
GOOD.
I suspected something like this would happen.
Occasionally threats are made like this.
I think there would have been national uproar for certain if they actually did it.
ROFL! Somebody needs to do the magazine cover.
This is JPL playing budget poker, as an earlier poster stated. They could fund the $4 million from internal sources, but they manufactured a flap to leverage funds from NASA HQ. Smart people.
The cost to maintain the Mars Rover program HAS to be minimal. They had no intention of cutting the program...just to use it as a ploy to get the budget they want.
This is the sort of crap that my town’s school board pulls. “If we don’t get the budget we requested, we’ll have to make students pay for athletic programs” instead of increasing class sizes from 16 to 18 (which has been documented to have NO effect on the quality of education).
Most successful for who? From an earth/people perspective, please tell me what we've gained for spending billions of taxpayer dollars.
It didn't cost billions. And we've learned a great deal about the surface of Mars, to which we hope to send you one day.
one of our most successful exploration missions of all time
“Most successful for who? From an earth/people perspective, please tell me what we’ve gained for spending billions of taxpayer dollars.”
Thats what a lot of people said to Columbus. That his voyage was a waste of money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.