On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:23:17 GMT, (Derek
Lyons) wrote:

Consider the difference between MER and the proposed moon landing
program. In which program did the science come first, and in which
program did the press coverage come first?


Good question.

IIRC, MER is part of NASA's status goal of sending (a) mission(s) to
Mars every two years; this is related to the Discovery program and the
Better Faster Cheaper Approach. There would have been some press
coverage when it was announced. It might have been confined to SPACE
NEWS and AVIATION WEEK, but there was coverage.

The scientists didn't do MER. Scientists wanted to return to Mars for
years after Viking, and god knows enough rovers were tested. But
there wasn't a serious chance of that until the '90s; even then, the
go-ahead came from above them, not from some guys in lab coats saying,
"Yes, let's go."

In fact, IIRC, the whole BFC approach got a shot in the arm not from a
NASA science mission but from MILITARY one -- the Clemintine vehicle
launched as part of SDI, out of Vandenberg on a recondtioned Titan 2.
It took photos of the Moon and was going to rendezvous with an
asteroid as part of a test of the targeting system, but that part of
the mission failed.

Sorry. Looks like press coverage predated the science by a lot of
years.





----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---