In case you missed it, the Marsbugs newsletter from Larry had a great comment by Steve Squyres about How to Succeed at NASA by Really Trying (with enough resources - almost.) MISSION TO MARS: RISKY BUSINESS http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/2004/20041101.txt What I got from this is: FBC doesn't work, and Squyres basically admits it. They went back for more money - twice. And got it. So much for "Cheaper." They made themselves a bit unpopular around JPL, because after previous Mars probe disasters stemming in part from FBC, they were given what they needed, when they asked for it - so the costs are actually somewhat distributed, in the form of greater risks to lesser programs. Even so, Squyres said the final outlay and the schedule didn't properly represent the costs and/or schedule, because they worked people too hard. They really should have had more time. So much for "Faster". As in life, so in space programs: Good, Cheap, Soon - Pick Any Two. And don't be surprised if you only get one of those two. In an earlier Europa posting, about the Genesis misssion, I mused over applying "test-first" methodology as used in XP/Agile software development to building space probes. Well, it sounds like this rover mission had that figured out well in advance - to hear Squyres tell it, they were totally test-oriented. At the end, Squyres tells an amusing story about going into the desert with a prototype rover, having that rover fail on them, and deciding to spend the rest of the afternoon on a geology expedition. He watched geologists at work and estimated that human beings could do in 30-45 seconds what Mars rovers required a whole day to accomplish. And he said he doesn't expect to live long enough to see that performance gap significantly closed. Well, wait a minute: what about price/performance? What about improvements in robotics technology? "Humans vs. robots" is the wrong question, to his mind. Well, it's also the wrong question to my mind. The right question is: what about price/performance? There is much in this article that makes a great deal of sense. It has the tone of an off-the-cuff speech (maybe it is just a transcript of a speech, it looks that way), but it's really a keeper essay about how to do things right. -michael == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
