NASA cuts Opportunity and LRO from budget
The 2016 budget proposed by NASA shuts down continued operation of either the Mars rover Opportunity or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
As the article notes, both these missions continue to provide us a great deal of scientific bang for the buck. To shut them down, only to spend far more later to replace them, seems incredibly stupid.
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The 2016 budget proposed by NASA shuts down continued operation of either the Mars rover Opportunity or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
As the article notes, both these missions continue to provide us a great deal of scientific bang for the buck. To shut them down, only to spend far more later to replace them, seems incredibly stupid.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Of course. And $349M was spent on the test stand for the senate launch system? I am sure that they are separate departments within NASA that probably never speak to each other, but somebody must oversee this from some high level. The saddest part (as usual) is that we aren’t surprised at this sort of bureaucratic ineptness.
This is utterly ridiculous. These people want to cut two functioning spacecraft when there is nothing appreciably wrong with either of them? And for what reason? Oh I forgot, have to feed the pork machine. Not that I was ever a fan of “Faster, Better, Cheaper” but it at least had the virtue in that it would have supported more missions like Opportunity and her equally capable twin, Spirit, going to more points of interest around Mars rather then one hugely expensive rover with it’s “flat tires,” faulty electrical system and dumbed down but still enormously expensive twin.
I question if anybody in the organization has their priorities strait any more. It’s simple common sense, when you have a tool that works, you use it. You don’t say “Oh gee, my screw driver doesn’t have the newest bells, whistles and ‘selfie sticks,’ guess I’ll toss it in the trash and buy a new one for X times the cost, or better yet buy something completely different and no longer be able to turn any screws.”
Which brings up a question, technically Opporuntily to LRO are government property, yes? Well isn’t government property sold off all of the time? Wouldn’t it make sense, if NASA was as strapped for cash as they seem, to sell Opportunity and LRO to private space firms/universities/anyone willing to foot the bill, and let them continue to operate the spacecraft? They could even make more money by leasing time on the DSN to communicate with the craft if the new owners don’t have the means. What, are they afraid that valuable government secrets about spacecraft operation dating back to 2003 are going to fall into enemy hands? That the precious methods of reformatting Opportunity’s memory every time there is a bit error, is going to somehow give someone else a leg up? That’s already happened, Space X is beating the pants off of NASA, the least they could do is either make some move to streamline without sacrificing science, or step aside and be a gracious loser rather then wasting billions on a rocket that will never fly.