Cassini Update - June 27, 2003

wrote in message
...
In sci.astro Ron Baalke wrote:

The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent
state of health and is operating normally.

It better be. The damn thing cost 3.2 billion USD.

I could have bought a LOT of pizza and Dr. Pepper
with that money.

Part of the problem in rationalizing any government expense is the
temptation to relate to the amount personally rather than collectively.

Cassini cost a little over 10 bucks per person in the USA - which might buy
you a small pizza and a 16oz dr pepper.

3.2 bil is a insignificant rounding error over at DoD.

---
Dave Boll
http://www.frii.com/~davejen/

wrote in message
...
In sci.astro news.boi.hp.com wrote:
wrote:
In sci.astro Ron Baalke wrote:

The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent
state of health and is operating normally.

It better be. The damn thing cost 3.2 billion USD.

I could have bought a LOT of pizza and Dr. Pepper
with that money.

Part of the problem in rationalizing any government expense is the
temptation to relate to the amount personally rather than
collectively.

Cassini cost a little over 10 bucks per person in the USA - which
might buy
you a small pizza and a 16oz dr pepper.

3.2 bil is a insignificant rounding error over at DoD.

Ugh, yes, but I got slammed when I said this stuff was
basically from a military organization, despite all the
defense contractors involved.

Most of the big military organizations are also big aerospace organisations.
Lockheed and Boeing especially

Doug