Ed Kyle ) wrote:
: Eric Chomko wrote:
: Ed Kyle ) wrote:
: : Eric Chomko wrote:
: : Paul F. Dietz ) wrote:
: : : Henk Boonsma wrote:
: :
: : : It all boils down to the fact that we're continuing where Apollo left off,
: : : only now NASA will have to do it on a shoestring budget.
: :
: : : Sometimes a smaller budget is a good thing. It can be
: : : harder to make yourself efficient if you're wallowing
: : : in unlimited funds.
: :
: : I guess you were spleeping when Goldin was stressing his "faster, better,
: : cheaper" approach in the 1990s?
:
: : As opposed to the Slower, Better, Costlier approach that
: : gave us the $1 billion Mars Observer fiasco, used up
: : the careers of an entire generation of space scientists
: : to get Galileo into space, and produced the space shuttle?
:
: Seems that the MERs success has righted that ship. You won't mention that
: part due to bias.

: At only $400 million each, with a short 34 month
: development timeline, and using techniques devised
: during the Mars Pathfinder mission, with was a
: Faster-Better-Cheaper (FBC) mission, the MERs are a
: lot closer to FBC than to the traditional Battlestar
: missions.

: : I agree with Paul, some of the best innovations come
: : on shoestring budgets.
:
: Yes, your hatred of government funding of any kind has you thinking like
: that. Don't want a grant, then don't apply for one. And stop acting like
: others shouldn't get one either.

: Huh? Who said that I hate government funding? Did
: I? I'm sure we can find interesting, successful
: government projects that were run on a shoestring,
: like Pathfinder for example.

Ed, I was referring to Paul, sorry for any confusion.

Eric

: - Ed Kyle