NASA snippets

space.com interview with Weiler

he is, necessarily, non-committal on policy changes - sounds like the Mars folks have some tension over early sample return vs multiple medium sized flight ops

scary bit is the comment on university R&A - sounds like the individual PI grants are going to take a hit again

New Scientist confirms that Mather also stepped down at the same time as Chief Scientist. But, reading between the lines, sounds like they heard it from the same source I did and I haven't seen a confirmation from NASA on that.

The big known problem on the horizon is the Mars Science Lab cost overruns, but I'd be surprised if that is the only, or even the main problem.

Tags

More like this

It was NASA proposal season last month, meant to comment on it, but was so exhausted and pissed off about the whole thing that I needed some space. A typical proposals is 15 pages of main text; including biblio, bios, associated documents and blurbs the final (electronic) package is typically 40-55…
NASA may be rolling back their "full cost accounting" scheme A couple of years ago, NASA switched to "full cost accounting. Previously a fair fraction of NASA permanent staff were paid out of center budgets directly, but, with some reason, to be fair, they moved to the aforemention full cost…
By Dr. Richard Quinn; Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, and Gail Jacobs Is the surface of Mars really sterile, or could there be still-undiscovered traces of life littering this hostile landscape? Chemist Richard Quinn focuses on understanding the reactive…
“Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived.” -Brannon…

Well, maybe I am to be surprised - third hand word that the Mars budget restructuring was the proximate cause...

I'm surprised if that is the case, SMD has four divisions and the Mars program, large as it is, is still only one of several program lines in one of those divisions.

That was interesting interview. I did like his comment on cost controls and Mars mission.

By Brad Holden (not verified) on 27 Mar 2008 #permalink