[extropy-chat] SPACE: where are we?

Robert J. Bradbury bradbury at aeiveos.com
Fri Feb 6 12:13:57 UTC 2004


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.

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.

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.)

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.

R.





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