Archive for the 'Space' Category
“NASA rescinded a directive Tuesday that would have forced millions of dollars in cuts from the popular Mars rover program,” reports the Los Angeles Times, “saying the budget reductions had not been cleared with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.”
“NASA Administrator Michael Griffin did not review the letter, sent by James Green, who leads the agency’s planetary science division,” reports the Associated Press. “‘Dr. Griffin did not know beforehand that Dr. Green sent the letter, nor did Dr. Green obtain explicit approval from Dr. Griffin to send the letter,’ [NASA spokesman Dwayne] Brown said.”
“NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said yesterday that Griffin was surprised to learn that the rover mission had been targeted for drastic cutback, and that he opposed the idea,” reports The Washington Post. “[Y]esterday NASA released a statement that said: ‘This letter was not coordinated with the administrator’s office and is in the process of being rescinded. The administrator has unequivocally stated that no rover will be turned off.’”
The latest word today is that the space agency “has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program”. Those cuts, according to those involved with the rover program, would have forced one rover into an indefinite “hibernation” and the other to curtail its science activities.
Spirit and Opportunity — the Mars Exploration Rovers — represent one of the most successful and cost-effective NASA programs, and one of the greatest engineering achievements, of my lifetime. Designed and intended for a three-month mission, both rovers now are into their fifth year of operation.
Some people have heard me argue that any civilization worthy of that term would regard the people behind this mission the way we tend to regard rock stars.
Instead, it turns out we’re living in a society which is slashing the rover program’s budget, requiring one vehicle’s operations to be suspended indefinitely and the other’s curtailed.
Addendum: See this JPL video from January about the rovers’ fourth anniversary on Mars. Or just read the transcript if you can’t view the video.
Meanwhile, CNN now is reporting “mixed signals” regarding the cuts, with a spokesman saying that NASA administrator Michael Griffin would not “shut down” one of the two rovers.
There’s no particular alternative implication provided by the spokesperson to back up this sudden hedging of the original story, so at this stage it’s unclear just what it is NASA intends.
Addendum: I find this potentiality depressing. Cheer me up by buying me the two NOVA specials on the rovers.
“Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe storms nearly killed NASA’s Mars exploration rovers, the solar-powered robots are awake and ready to continue their mission,” reports the agency. “The rovers are 43 months into missions originally planned to last three.”
Apparently, a science blog says: “The buzz here in Houston at a Space Exploration conference is that years of photo snaps by the recently-lost Mars Global Surveyor has picked up a gullywasher of a finding.” Given his use of the term “gullywasher” are we about to get liquid water on Mars?
Addendum: Liquid water flowing on modern-day Mars. For what it’s worth, they are showing what appear to be the exact photos which Richard “Face on Mars” Hoagland has for y ears argued showed flowing water on modern-day Mars, and the mainstream NASA scientists disputed him.
NASA announces that despite an initial intent to let the staggeringly successful Hubble Space Telescope die, it’s launching one more servicing mission, after which it “will be at the peak of its capabilities.”
“NASA’s newest spacecraft at Mars has completed the challenging half-year task of shaping its orbit to the nearly circular, low-altitude pattern from which it will scrutinize the planet,” says the press release out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The so-called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over the next month will deploy an antenna and ready its equipment.
“The main science investigations will begin in November,” says JPL. “During its two-year science phase, the mission will return more data about Mars than all previous Mars missions combined.”
Just a couple of days ago, as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter went into orbit, I watched a couple of people talking about Google Earth and how it would be cool if there were a Google Mars.
Well, notice today’s Google logo. Click it, and you end up, yes, on Google Mars.
(The reason for this is the fact that March 13, tomorrow for those of us on the West Coast, is the birthday of one Percival Lowell.)
No, it doesn’t zoom in close enough to get a good look at the Face. But you can type “face” into the search box and have it take you to the location.
Update: And just how could they manage to pass up this opportunity?
Put on NASA-TV, or watch these text updates, for the orbital insertion of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.