Posted on 03/24/2008 5:33:37 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) folks that operate the Spirit and Opportunity robots on the red planet have gotten some bad news. A directive has come from NASA Headquarters to take a 40 percent financial cut in their program — some $4 million in the remaining months of fiscal year 2008. It all comes down to a financial stun gun for one of the rovers, both still busy at work doing science. Cost to run the Mars twins is $20 million per year. They've been on the red planet since January 2004 and are long past their 90-day mission plan. Steve Squyres, the MER principal investigator at Cornell University, said the 40 percent cut is huge. "We're rapidly coming to the conclusion that if we have to implement this cut, it's going to mean essentially shutting off science activities for one of the vehicles," Squyres told SPACE.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Let’s get creative, guys! Sell them to Dubai or China.
But in a way, I can kind of see the other side of the issue.
This mission was originally designed and funded for a 90-day stint. It has now gone on for 4 years.
Maybe we could reduce the workload of one by utilizing it just for pictures. Rotate scientific duties and picture taking only duties between the machines to keep the gear working.
Or, we could just go bat-assed crazy a have a PPV “Rumble on Mars” robotic death match!
:)
The real shame is NASA’s paltry budget. America was founded and built by explorers, pioneers, and visionaries. Now we spend all our efforts on social services and entertainment. I once thought we’d at least have a base on the moon by now. So did Hollywood 40 years ago.
These are the little space explorers that could on Mars, yes? Why in the name of all that is sane would TPTB cut their budget?! Idjuts. >:-(
Relax. They used the same tactic with Hubble. Pick the most popular program and threaten to shut it down, and magically the money appears.
The long term effects on bone loss in zero and low gravity.
Good riddance. Total waste of money.
Me! OK line up guys who wants their name scrathed into the ground on Mars? I am selling the first batch at a measley 100K! per name.
Paris Hilton Ok you get the first one, thanks for the cash. Now Who is next?
This wouldn’t bother me so much if I weren’t sure NASA is spending more than $4 million a year on affirmative action outreach and recruiting programs. ;)
Police and Fire Fighter Layoffs
No More HS Football
Did I miss any of the tactics local politicians use?
It’s a shame, the rovers are outliving their supply lines,, there’ll be more hopefully, where else we gonna go to find cool stuff?
I agree with your sentiments, I hope Nasa can get its stuff together and still save the Hubble... sounds like a delay may be in order for awhile with big problems on their new fuel tanks..
penny wise pound foolish
No cigar. That was figured out in the early 70’s on our Skylab missions.
This is EXTREMELY disappointing.
A company needs to call their bluff and make an offer for it.
If they’re not going to see this through to the end, I want the money from the entire program returned to the taxpayers. If this isn’t core to NASA’s mission, then they have no mission.
are always on the prowl! Especially... 
in congress!
“The real shame is NASA’s paltry budget.”
NASA can be ineffective with a big budget, or a paltry budget.
I vote for a paltry budget. If they would actually spend it on science, not bureaucracy, maybe I’d support a bigger budget.
And they still didn’t drive it over to where they planted the American flags. /sarcasm
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