[extropy-chat] ASTRO: A piece of the Universe

[Amara Graps]

Robert Bradbury:

>Also -- as a frame of reference ~200 Lockheed engineers
>were involved in creating Stardust --

Don't forget the scientific component of the mission too (another
few hundred, I would guess). A significant proportion of the dust
community have been involved with this mission.

>the solution reminds me of...

>Harry: Come on! You're NASA for Christ's sake!
>You're the ones who come up with this shit!
>Why I bet you have a bunch of guys sitting
>around somewhere right now just thinking shit up,
>and somebody backing them up.
>What's your contingency plan?
>Truman: Our contingency plan?
>Harry: Yeah, your back up plan. You've gotta have a back up plan.
>Truman: No, we don't have a back up plan.


I suggest to keep a close watch on Rosetta. ESA lost their
opportunity to launch it on a Russian Proton rocket (ESA deemed it
too 'risky' with the fuel transfer), leaving them with the same
risky Ariane 5 plan as before and a new, much dustier target comet.
The launch window opens on February 26. No backup plan, and a very
real possibility of ten years of developing, planning, building with
~thousand scientists and engineers being scrapped.

Amara
-- 

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Amara Graps, PhD
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, INAF - ARTOV,
Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, I-00133 Roma, ITALIA
tel: +39-06-4993-4375       |fax:  +39-06-4993-4383
Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it  | http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps
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I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck. -- Calvin