NASA Mars Probe Needs a Bailout

October 10, 2008

Anyone got a spare billion or so? NASA's next Mars probe is a bit, well, this is embarrassing, but it has sorta busted the bank. (Very trendy!)

Agency managers held a come-to-Jesus meeting this week in D.C. and will be ramping up full spin control late this afternoon to put their best face forward for the media.
The facts are pretty clear: Too much mission, too little money. You can fudge around all you want but, like we're all starting to appreciate, you can only stretch time so far. For the troubled Mars probe, the deadline is the short window of opportunity to launch in the fall of 2009 when Earth and Mars are favorably aligned. Things aren't looking promising. So what will NASA do?

It seems pretty unpopular these days to actually do what you SAY you're going to do, which in NASA's case means canceling the mission because it is running more than 30 percent over budget. No, the fashion of the day seems to be to continue to pour good money after bad and hope a fairy godmother (aka U.S. taxpayers) bails you out in the end.

For Mars Science Lab, that would be akin to spending double, triple, quadruple the alloted cost and then having the good fortune to land in the midst of a thriving bacterial community on Mars, settling the age-old question about whether Earth alone supports life, winning a Nobel Prize, and reconciling with colleagues on all the other space science missions that had to be cast aside to feed Science Lab's bloat.

Not that's not going to help you in your retirement, but it may inspire your kids to at least THINK about careers in science and engineering, which is probably the only way out of the financial quagmire in which our country (and increasingly the world) is plodding through (unsuccessfully, apparently.) It is science, engineering and technology that created the digital age and I personally believe it is science, engineering and technology, in the hands of enterprising entrepreneurs, that is America's only hope of recreating prosperity.

Don't get me wrong. I think Mars exploration is cool, cool, cool. But I think INTEGRITY is even cooler.

(Caption: Not ready for prime time. Credit: NASA)

Comments

[matt]

you know, congress is not the only road to my wallet.

NASA should set up a "SAVE MARS LAB" paypal account, and just you know, ask folks to kick in.

Maybe they could send folks that donate more than x dollars some sort of nifty "I saved NASA" plaque for their wall or something.

I mean hey, it works for PBS...

My original thought was for the governemnt to just spin NASA off so we could buy NASA Stock... but then I realized that would just increase the chances of them getting a taxpayer financed bail out... /shrug