"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote in
:


"Allen W. McDonnell" wrote in message
...
Personally I would rather they delay the launch a year and get a
higher power launch vehicle to deliver it sooner than currently
planned. In the old days NASA managed to get probes to the planets
quickly, these days we seem to always be doing half a dozen flyby's
for cheap gravity assists instead of just burning more fuel at the
launch.

Even if it means the mission never gets funded?

And I think you overestimate exactly how quickly NASA got probes to
planets.

For one thing, we've never had an orbiter of Mercury. That takes a
lot of work.

And the only other probe we've ever sent to Mercury, Mariner 10, had to do
a Venus flyby to get there, even back in the days when NASA used bigger
rockets.


--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.