On Dec 4, 1:15 pm, Hi Pat! wrote:
On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:27:54 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

This will further drive up the costs of the already way-over-budget program.

...But I think it's better off that they get the thing right before
they come up with another MPL or Beaglesplat.
OM

That's true enough, especially since we really do not have a viable
fly-by-rocket lander of what it's going to take in order to avoid the
direct hard landing that has no last second hope of avoiding a bad/
fatal kind of landing.

In other words, this spendy mission needs at least a few seconds worth
of fly-by-rocket hang time before dropping onto the deck.

~ BG