Re: Troubles parallel ambitions in NASA Mars project

[Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk>]

Greg Crinklaw wrote:
> Martin Brown wrote:
> > On Apr 17, 3:47 pm, Greg Crinklaw <theskyhoundyour...@xxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> > > Stupot wrote:
> > > > Greg Crinklaw wrote:
> > > > > Stupot wrote:
> > > > > > As much as I admire these big projects, sometimes I wonder if the
> > > > > > cost / benefit ratio would be better simply by launching 8 more MERs.
> >
> > Or 8 similar sized vehicles each carrying at most 2 different
> > experiments. Having all your eggs in one very large and heavy basket
> > makes for potential trouble when your aerospace engineers don't do
> > units conversion too good. Mars has a rather high hit rate for
> > vehicles arriving at velocities that just add a new crater (or miss
> > entirely).
> >
> > Exploring a few different locations on Mars may well be at least as
> > important as analysing one spot with a large number of techniques
> > (supposing that the heavy vehicle actually manages a satisfactory soft
> > landing). The Rovers have actually been extremely good value, and
> > derivative instruments based on that proven technology beefed up a bit
> > with new science experiments would IMHO be a much better option with
> > the available levels of funding.
>
> Wow.  You really are some sort of expert!  Let's just say that I do not 
> agree with the majority of your assumptions, your comparisons to other 
> projects are way off the mark, and thus so are your conclusions.

I note that you are attempting to make a personal attack here rather 
than dealing with the substantive technical issues.

Do you think that they will make the 2009 launch window? Yes or No.

And if it is declared "ready" will it be a management decision for PR 
reasons like the ill fated Challenger disaster or a genuine "engineers 
ready to launch" with the hardware all fit for purpose.

I would really like to see the thing work, but it is setting itself up 
for failure at present (and by robbing other NASA science projects of 
funds in the process it will compromise them too).

Regards,
Martin Brown
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