Author Topic: NASA Announces New Rover to Close Out Decade of New Missions  (Read 95915 times)

Offline arachnitect

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Grunsfeld speaking at Press conference (at AGU)

Opens by talking about MSL, Maven, InSight.

Jim Green also in attendance.

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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Offline Blackstar

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Just said that the instrument suite could include a drill, and could include caching "for future sample return."

There you go.

Offline LegendCJS

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Quote
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has been critical of past cutbacks in NASA's planetary science program, applauded the plan announced today.

However, Schiff said he favored launching the rover in 2018 — when the alignment of Earth and Mars is more favorable, permitting the launch of a heavier payload. "I will be working with NASA, the White House and my colleagues in Congress to see whether advancing the launch date is possible, and what it would entail," he said.

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/04/15678579-nasa-plans-2020-mars-rover-remake?lite

Could they get this built and launched in five to six years?
Wow, a congressman who knows orbital mechanics.  Not sure if I believe it or if he just heard the fact from somewhere.  How many extra kg could this 2018 opportunity give a mission anyway in comparison to a 2020 launch?
« Last Edit: 12/04/2012 11:13 pm by LegendCJS »
Remember: if we want this whole space thing to work out we have to optimize for cost!

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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spare MMTRG for Curiosity will be used for new rover, and will use more Curiosity spare parts and team for new rover.

Could have done something for 2018, but did not have enough for budget, so delay for a rover.
« Last Edit: 12/04/2012 11:16 pm by Ronsmytheiii »

Offline arachnitect

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Grunsfeld: not possible to fly lander by 2018. Worth waiting until 2020 to get rover.

Offline Blackstar

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Wow, a congressman who knows orbital mechanics.  Not sure if I believe it or if he just heard the fact from somewhere.  How many extra kg could this 2018 opportunity give a mission anyway in comparison to a 2020 launch?

Common knowledge. Schiff knows JPL. He's been told this by lots of people.

2018 is really pushing it, however. That's a rapid turnaround, and missing that window costs a LOT of money (we saw that with Curiosity with a $400 million hit). So it might be best to plan for 2020 and hit that window with 99% probability than shoot for 2018 and have a 75% chance of hitting it.

Offline Star One

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spare MMTRG for Curiosity will be used for new rover, and will use more Curiosity spare parts and team for new rover.

Could have done something for 2018, but did not have enough for budget, so delay for a rover.

How much percentage wise in the way of spare parts for Curiosity will this rover be able to utilise? Are there enough to to significantly reduce costs in its build?
« Last Edit: 12/04/2012 11:21 pm by Star One »

Offline Tea Party Space Czar

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Total cost for MSL 2.0 is $1.5 Billion to include the cost of the Launch Vehicle.

Hopeful we make it this time.  This coincidentally is another Mars Flagship in terms of cost.

Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
TEA Party in Space

Offline Star One

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Total cost for MSL 2.0 is $1.5 Billion to include the cost of the Launch Vehicle.

Hopeful we make it this time.  This coincidentally is another Mars Flagship in terms of cost.

Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
TEA Party in Space

Atlas V 501 again I assume?

Offline Chris Bergin

Really great few minutes on why these rovers help human exploration. Worth using as a standalone article sep from this news.
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Offline simonbp

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When was it ever alive?

This announcement changes nothing WRT sample return, except this rover may have caching capabilities.

There had been a lingering chance of a sample return mission (which Chris just wrote up last week) in the 2020s, following from its recommendation by the Decadal Survey. That now seems very unlikely, as there would be huge resistance to two very expensive Mars surface missions in a row.

Offline kevin-rf

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Wow, looks like NASA once again working to get back to a mission every window. I applaud our new rover overlords!

I was going to say, Party Like it's 1999, then realized '99 was not a good year at mars. So Party Like it's 2018 ;)
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Offline Robotbeat

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When was it ever alive?

This announcement changes nothing WRT sample return, except this rover may have caching capabilities.

There had been a lingering chance of a sample return mission (which Chris just wrote up last week) in the 2020s, following from its recommendation by the Decadal Survey. That now seems very unlikely, as there would be huge resistance to two very expensive Mars surface missions in a row.
Except, that's the very point of doing caching.
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Offline notsorandom

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Following the "What Comes After MSL" thread there was talk of a few options for the cashing rover. Is this a much bigger more capable rover than the rovers in the latest MSR studies?

Offline Star One

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What happened about the pressing need for a new orbiter in this time frame or are they going to pass responsibility for communications relaying over vehicles such as MAVEN & the ExoMars orbiter?
« Last Edit: 12/04/2012 11:34 pm by Star One »

Offline Blackstar

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When was it ever alive?

This announcement changes nothing WRT sample return, except this rover may have caching capabilities.

There had been a lingering chance of a sample return mission (which Chris just wrote up last week) in the 2020s, following from its recommendation by the Decadal Survey. That now seems very unlikely, as there would be huge resistance to two very expensive Mars surface missions in a row.

You completely misunderstand this. Grunsfeld just said that the rover could include caching for "future sample return." He also said it would be responsive to the decadal survey. The decadal survey says "do a mission to cache samples for sample return."

This is MAX-C by another name.

Offline Chris Bergin

Mr Grunsfeld noting it's more like a crewed mission to Mars would be EM-2 style....as opposed to landing on the first mission.
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Offline Blackstar

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Following the "What Comes After MSL" thread there was talk of a few options for the cashing rover. Is this a much bigger more capable rover than the rovers in the latest MSR studies?

This is a caching rover. This is a more capable version of a caching rover, but it's a caching rover.

Offline Tea Party Space Czar

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When was it ever alive?

This announcement changes nothing WRT sample return, except this rover may have caching capabilities.

There had been a lingering chance of a sample return mission (which Chris just wrote up last week) in the 2020s, following from its recommendation by the Decadal Survey. That now seems very unlikely, as there would be huge resistance to two very expensive Mars surface missions in a row.

We will need some orbiter type missions to replace aging missions.  Mars Odyssey is gonna need to be replaced at some point.  Even if it is just a relay comm mission. 

Obviously we want science on board but we need to relay data. 

But there are people who they can do that. ;)

Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
TEA Party in Space

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