No Mars Rover for Canada

" The federal government has turned down a request by Canada's space
industry to support a contract that would have allowed the companies to
build the European Space Agency's Mars surface rover..."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/...ars-rover.html

Sounds like a another missed opportunity to move Canada's space industry forward.

" The project had the approval of the United States, which also wanted
Canada to continue its robotics role and had signed off on Canadian
firms to design at least the robotics component on equipment and
vehicles used on its planned mission to the moon in 2020.

Canada has never failed with any project it has handled for NASA, which
has earned it the trust of the U.S. as it gathers international support
for its space programs."

Also, implications for Canada's participation in the VSE ???...hope not...

In article om,
Jeff Lerner wrote:
" The federal government has turned down a request by Canada's space
industry to support a contract that would have allowed the companies to
build the European Space Agency's Mars surface rover..."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/...ars-rover.html
Sounds like another missed opportunity to move Canada's space industry forward.

Well, some parts of it. That part about funding it by "cancelling or
postponing other projects" is a danger sign.

Given that Canada doesn't spend a whole lot on planetary-exploration
projects to begin with, getting $100M that way could easily mean that
Canada does *nothing* else in the field for a decade -- no other Canadian
projects, no instruments on other people's missions, no terrestrial-
analogs work, no scientist participation in other people's missions,
*nothing*. If that's the way it would play out, that might be good news
for the part of Canada's space industry that got the contracts, but it
would be very bad news for the rest of Canada's exploration community.
Even for a good project, that would be too high a price.

Also, implications for Canada's participation in the VSE ???...hope not...

Remember, the US position is that there will be no foreign participation
in VSE itself. Other countries will be invited to do... well, something...
sort of vaguely in association with it. Eventually. Maybe.
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