dasnake

BTW, while all of this complaining is being done about a mars rover, I wonder how many of you know that NASA is not going to continue the shuttle program. I bet that will really get your knickers in a twist. I bet you'll come up with all kinds of ridiculous numbers as to why we're spending too much in Iraq and not enough on space. And there again my point will be driven home. You know nothing about the war, only what the news and your hippie friends at Starbucks tell you. I have a cousin over there right now... wearing forest camo because the government didn't want to spend the money to buy enough desert camo. Maybe you also don't know that both the Democratic candidates want to pull funding from the space program for others things. That means that Aries and Orion may never even happen to replace the shuttle program. Get a life people. You don't know shit.

Euphoria

To put it in perspective, humans have been launching orbital vehicles into space for around 50 years, half the time they've been flying airplanes. During the first 50 years in the history of airplanes, over a million were built, and almost all were used more than once. In the first 50 years of space flight, less than 5,000 rockets have been launched into orbit.

frigg

A bunch of ham radio folks will poll their own equipment together on a sourceforge project type web site and make a transmitter, it won't take long.

enine

Someone has to pay for that_

Besides what does the moeny go towrds other than sending a signal to the rover to do stuff? Is this salary money to pay programmers? Where is the upkeep cost? They've already sent and landed the damned thing_ Ity's not like they have to build new transmission equipment once a year_

uberfu

Wonder whyn they cut in these great space program?....

uomolinux

if Elon makes it big, was I was proven right?

Spaceboy

LastVigilante

Help us, Bloomberg!

Blue387

hammer

Topcat

We could build an orbiting habitat tomorrow. All the tech and know how is in place. The materiel would come from the moon and launched into space using rail guns.

Of course given the military budget, it ain't going to happen.

Gary_7vn

Sure like any other agency it has it's budget, size and management problems, just like any other big corporation. But just to say "NASA is holding us back" is careless.

Give NASA a few billions a year and we'll be in Mars in less than 5 ~ 7 years.
You just can't move forward on a shoe string budget.

aec007

Its NOT the military who is spending the millions. (Well, the military spends it, but it is Congress who budgets it. If the military doesn't spend it then they lose it and people burn.) It is Congress. The military is only performing the mission that Congress (and the President) give it (remember: military = political tool).

Don't blame the military. All U.S. citizens should be declaring their support for the military as those men & women are giving huge sacrifices to perform their mission.

You want to cast blame.... picket Congress. Send letters! Go on talk shows! THAT will get REAL results. Instead we (the American people), cast blame on the military because they are an easy target while Congress sits safe in their offices and vote themselves another pay raise! If people harassed Congress half as much as they harass the military, then maybe we would see some policy changes like people are screaming for!

My $0.02.

PigVenus

"Because all NASA is doing is hampering space expansion. "

Dude, if NASA were able to hamper the expansion of space, that would be the greatest accomplishment in human history (aside from the invention of the chocolate chip cookie).

"Exploration is fine but turn LEO to the alt.space with tax incentives and government contracts.
Increase the money spent for COTS tenfold by cancelling the Orion altogether."

Maybe Virgin Galactic can commercialize space, someday, but the current reality is every flight into space is experimental, not routine. It's not like you can go to Home Depot and buy a DIY space shuttle.

"Let NASA do space science but turn its administration over to the universities.


spaceboy, that's insane! First, science at NASA is already conducted with universities. Also, do you honestly want the administration of space science handled by a federation of competitive academics and their secretarial overlords?

"The military-industrial complex routinely tells NASA to bend over and take it."

No, politics routinely tells NASA to bend over and take it. After Columbia, why do you think missions to the ISS were retained while the one to HST was scrapped (before a little change of opinion action)? Why do you think budgets have shifted from core science to Mars?

However, by way of full disclosure, most of my own space travel is conducted outside the aegis of NASA. But if I didn't have the support of the Amish (and Mennonite) communities, I wouldn't be so reluctant to pooh pooh the one governmental agency that is fully able to develop, implement, and distribute a truly kickass calendar.

frigg

Also I think there is probably much more to pay for than a couple people to drive the thing around, although someone could probably design a exploration bot these days that can be maintained and utilized much more cheaply, hell maybe even used by the joe schmoe public

pevans34

Don't get me started on metric, America and England - last two hold outs in the world, and I am not sure about England.

Gary_7vn

[crave.cnet.com]

They say public outrage will keep her goin!

...It's a she right?

N@tedog

navvywavvy

I'm sure if they just cut back on the GI bill they could save that $4 mill pretty quick, huh?

NASA could use a bit of a trim. Or perhaps a complete shave. They could easily turn over all of NASA to private companies and save us billions and get better results. Space tourism isn't happening because of NASA it is happening in spite of NASA. NASA is holding us back.

CGANIERE

Least NASA got there moneys worth. This is the first product that i've seen now days that has survived past its warranty 4 years after it should have stopped that's what we should be talking about

utube2007

simmo

Geisrud

jetexas

They already have the transmitter-receiver. The tools are already paid for. The $20 million a year is just for maintenance of running the project. They spent $820 million initially to research, build, and shoot the robots to Mars. Now all they are doing is sending commands once a day or every two days and retrieving information. I bet the robot is smart enough to store a weeks worth of commands to travel on it's own and send back the data at the end of the week.

LoganSix

cmsjustin

Meatlocker - still a man, despite his white iPhone fetish.

alanwarp

graffiksguru

mennomateo

I hope the next bot has some multi touch technology and cover flow, otherwise it's useless.

electrikecho

PlasmaMachine

cyborgtroy

Because all NASA is doing is hampering space expansion. Exploration is fine but turn LEO to the alt.space with tax incentives and government contracts.
Increase the money spent for COTS tenfold by cancelling the Orion altogether.
Let NASA do space science but turn its administration over to the universities.
NASA right now is self-serving bureaucracy that strives to keep its workforce (mercifully rapidly aging) employed.
Major industry players have control over some NASA decisions via the United Space Alliance.
The military-industrial complex routinely tells NASA to bend over and take it.

etc

Spaceboy

They do need a little image refurbishing too. I mean... Um... NASA TV sucks!

IrisMR

decrigeek

They will dream about electric sheep.

InsaneGain

mariogalaxyman

brianhatch

rifdawg

shizball

CliftonSantiago

chanmoss

good thing they cut the money instead of wasting it on something that really isn't doing us any good.

dantaylor08

chanmoss

Topcat

mr_bigglesworth

Many people will be willing to donate to keep Wall-E, I mean, Spirit working until is breaks apart. Especially, after the movie is released this year.

Noobs-R-Us

auroragb

Ha ha. That's a joke. I'm sure someone else will get there first.

In the mean time they should let Standford or MIT have a turn at the wheel. The thing's solar powered, it doesn't actually cost anything to make it run. Eat that, ExxonMobil!

Brock

hey sarge

newsflash

NASA is wasteful and always has been. good science but very expensive.

mtopper

mtopper

@ineedattention: I really hope you were being sarcastic about that whole 'ecosystem' comment.

Topcat

Y2KGTP

still not very good logic.

NASA spent hundreds of millions of our dollars to have a space program to place the rover where it is because the potential for valuable information gathering was judged worth the price (I dont disagree). sunk costs (a real accounting term - look it up).

now NASA chooses NOT to spend a comparatively miniscule amount of money to gather that info. I suppose they will refer to the savings as opportunity costs (sic) (also an accounting term)

how fucking warped is that?

and btw. how does it cost $4,000,000 to sit here and watch while the machine gathers the info? sound like a job I would take for a mere $1,500,000.

and I would hire Curves and Nutbastard to codify the results and we would all make a mint, while saving NASA $2,500,000.

ok - lunch break is over
sorry for the rant

mtopper

gotenki

moogoescow

[news.yahoo.com]

They changed their minds.

TasteTheFlava

QWERTYthon

It cost money to pay salaries of those scientists. It cost money to pay for time on the very large communications system needed to communicate with those rovers. It cost money for the buildings, equipment, data storage, data analysis, data modeling, simulations, etc, etc, etc...

You're pretty ignorant of how efficient this project actually is. This isn't like dusting crops, boy!

SgtBeavis

fewl

whootowl

Your high-school and/or college kids can't just go and drive, they have to maintain and operate a highly complex system like the Goldstone antenna. Not to mention pay for electricity, maintain backup systems, etc.

Yeah, $20M is a lot, and I'm sure there is plenty of waste, but it's not like it's all going to a few fat-cat salaries.

libelle47

1. Opportunity and Spirit were originally intended to last only 90 days. We've obviously gotten our moneys worth and then some in the science we've gotten since those 90 days have passed.
2. These are not two "perfectly functional" rovers. Spirit is the most deteriorated of the two. One of its drive wheels is locked and it is basically dragging it along. The abrasion tool on its arm has been worn down for a long time so it can't do the deep geological analysis that it originally could. There are several other systems that have failed on both rovers.
3. However both rovers continue to produce valuable science. Opportunity is still fully mobile and has examined several craters. Both provide constant weather and atmospheric data.
4. They are not "killing" Spirit. It isn't alive to begin with. They are putting it into sleep mode which will is the same thing they do every martian winter. IF funds are ever given back to them, they can flip the switch and go back to work (assuming everything is still working).
5. I still think this is a dumb idea but the money for that overpriced POS Aries 1 rocket has to come from someone's budget.

SgtBeavis

leroyk

Facilities, earth-side equipment, and salaries. Should I continue?

DustyButt

Metropolis

wjousts

Spirit is parked on a sunny slope for the Martian winter and was going to gather atmospheric measurements before the budget cut. Instead, it will now stay in sleep mode for most of the winter and stop all science gathering.

Sleep during the winter, not shutdown

trickonion

The robots are paid for; the antennas are paid for; so what is left($820 million)? Very expensive scientist that now only control 1 part-time robot. Why can't NASA be more efficient?

I say let some high school or college kids drive them for awhile.

LoganSix

lets just send some mechs

rolfo87

jonkeegan

Sloth

Hopefully they can start it moving again, once they locate a Martian mechanic

camel109

I'd like to live on Mars, too, but it's important that the business in Iraq is finished first. It's easy to say that people could just "stop fighting" but that isn't feasible. Stopping the fight now would just cause more problems from resentful people later... like what happened on 9/11. I think that a lot of people have forgotten that abandoning Afghanistan before the fight was finished there allowed Al Qaeda to move in and take over. The same thing would happen if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq today.

America isn't abandoning the space program, they're simply delaying putting money into it because that money is needed to pay for the war. Lots of people think all that money goes to paying for bombs, but it also goes to feeding the troops and giving medical aid to the Iraqi people. Space will always be there.

Of course, there is always the least popular idea that no one would EVER go for... the U.S. could raise taxes so that there could be money for both... but personally I'm not for it, I need that money to pay for gasoline until the would algae fuel kicks in. ;)

Euphoria

Meatlocker - still a man, despite his white iPhone fetish.

DiddyBear

SuppleMonkey

Is there anything he can't do?

sansovino

buhs

Gary_7vn

BMErdin

And who would give up the technical capacity to operate on Mars for $4 million? Honestly? Say you want to do something a year down the road that could conceivably be done by Spirit. Think of the astronomical (no pun intended) cost of getting another vehicle to another freaking planet rather than maintaining the one you've got there now. I know Americans lease and flip their cars like it's going out of style, but space robots too? Go us.

mdhatucb

tombest610

Clammy42

Explore, adapt, survive. Manifest Destiny bitches!

TableZero

bandit

It's pathetic that we can fund wars with billions in the blink of an eye but can't fund scientific exploration with a fraction of that.

Tush

Bueller

That's how I understand it, at least.

jw

Bueller

macserv

Hypenotist

Out2gtcha

The government doesn't even count numbers as low as $4m.

Meanwhile, mission accomplished in Iraq. USA! USA!

VLI22

one: nobody wants to live there, didn't you see total recall, wtf

two: the rover has been up there for 4 years, it's probably played out its usefulness in gathering data. nasa probably cut it to play off the sympathies of pathetic nerds and to make way for the next bigger and better rover

jcy

Curves

morcheeba

OLEDRevolution

Love the photoshop.

I think the rationale behind this decision is that the damn thing has performed ridiculously well, and will not die. They were expecting this program to run dry years ago, but due to the fact that the rovers keep soldiering on, they just can't simply continue to shovel money into the project. I think we're fantastically lucky that we get to keep one battle rover.

workingonyourinvoice

mildretard

Anyway, it's sad that they have to kill Spirit. The first mars rover died out on its own while these two have been chugging strong for 4 years without much incident. I hope they at least gave Spirit a nice battery conditioner so it can possibly be reused when they get the money.

lafond66

pete_at_brandeis

ViperBorg

mildretard

Spaceboy: how can you be anti-NASA with a name like Spaceboy???

frigg

DeCerbo

I know that some people have never left the town they grew up in, and can never conceive of the future in any other light than the dim little one that illuminates their own little tiny 6x6 corner of the world, but this IS your future; along with all of humanity.

Mars is the closest thing we have to our own home planet and decades and decades from now your children's children's children, maybe even your children's, children's, children's children might be colonizing Mars. The likelihood of this happening is great; which is why they have spend so many billions of dollars over the past decades to fund research on Mars, its atmosphere, surface and the feasibility of humans living on Mars for extended periods.

Out2gtcha

Spaceboy

Uhh.. Could you please define "Eco-System"? For an eco-system to be considered an Eco-System, don't you first need some form of... oh I dunno... Life?

ripfire

joel_roberts

America, a country with priorities.

hanspecans

It's truly a shame though that they couldn't find a paltry (in comparison to the money flushed away daily by our feckless leaders) $4M to keep it rolling...

Nicely done overall though, NASA.

Bueller

"Two droids enter, but only one can slowly roll away."

Monty

Wow! Even after it got its own Imax movie and everything! Maybe if there's enough of a public outcry, they'll reverse course, as they did with the service mission to Hubble. On the other hand, the Rover has already lived beyond its expected span, and might be in worse shape than researchers are letting on. Given the robot's celebrity, this might be part of a plan to allow the robot to die with a little dignity and privacy, rather than have it stumble over a rock and fall on its butt with its little wheels spinning in the air like dying insect legs with the whole world watching.

frigg

mth2574

Petrogk

ineedattention

Mayor McRib

Hopefully it can be configured to do some cool automated task(s) that can be monitored informally until it is unable to do so on it's own any more.

strider_mt2k

csegot

enine

thechansen

Milstar

lostarchitect

qaplus

Not. :(

DG

olternaut

SeattleTed

waste of money!

stoleriko