[extropy-chat] SPACE: where are we?

[Technotranscendence]

On Friday, February 06, 2004 7:13 AM Robert J. Bradbury
bradbury at aeiveos.com wrote:
> Ok, this is going to seem a little off the scope -- but
> I'm frustrated as to why we can't seem to get updates
> out of JPL on a frequency greater than 12-24 hours.

I agree.  I've been checking their site for updates a few times a day,
and it seems they're on a once-a-day update schedule.  You'd think
they'd be uploading many photos and lots of data each day.  Yes, writing
a press release might take more effort, but some of the photos would
speak for themselves.  Even their news releases aren't like high quality
writing anyhow, so it wouldn't take that much time.

> We have two functional rovers on the ground.
> We have two (three if you include the
> European mission) orbiters going around
> the planet.  We have a Deep space
> network that is based all around the globe.

You can't really blame JPL for the Mars Express orbiter.  Go to the ESA
web site for that.:)

> Yes I understand that the time of light delay from
> the Earth to Mars may be nine or more minutes --
> but it would appear that one has the resources
> to make this a minor problem.
>
> Why can these people not make it happen?
>
> (I am open to technical explanations that have not
> thus far been presented -- I am also open to non
> technical explanations.)

Because it takes time for a person or people to analyze the stuff, write
it up, and make it presentable for public consumption.

> I would offer this -- if we spend $410 million
> per orbiter to get them to Mars we could at least
> spend $100K/yr for reporter(s) who are going
> to make it their 24/7 duty to make sure the
> information is up to date.

Well, the mission funding might not have included that in the first
place.  Whoever's writing up the news releases might be doing double
duty -- either not be the PR person for just this mission or actually
might be something like the project lead as well as the PR person.

Of course, this is like any news story.  I want a lot of information
now, but in a few months or years compendia of all the data and such
will be available.

Regards,

Dan
  See "The Hills of Rendome" at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Rendome.html