NASA cuts Opportunity and LRO from budget
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."
--San Antonio Express-News
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!
My July fund-raiser for Behind the Black is now over. The support from my readers was unprecedented, making this July campaign the best ever, twice over. What a marvelous way to celebrate the website's tenth anniversary!
Thank you! The number of donations in July, and continuing now at the beginning of August, is too many for me to thank you all personally. Please forgive me by accepting my thank you here, in public, on the website.
If you did not donate or subscribe in July and still wish to, note that the tip jar remains available year round.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
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On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs." --San Antonio Express-News
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.
My July fund-raiser for Behind the Black is now over. The support from my readers was unprecedented, making this July campaign the best ever, twice over. What a marvelous way to celebrate the website's tenth anniversary!
Thank you! The number of donations in July, and continuing now at the beginning of August, is too many for me to thank you all personally. Please forgive me by accepting my thank you here, in public, on the website.
If you did not donate or subscribe in July and still wish to, note that the tip jar remains available year round.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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.