NASA Builds a Cheap Standardized Space Probe 123
TangAddict writes "Dr. Alan Weston, who previously invented bungee jumping, led a team of scientists at NASA Ames Research Center to build a $4 million spacecraft in less than two years. The Modular Common Spacecraft Bus is designed to accept payloads of up to 50kg. and can be used for a variety of missions including a rendezvous with asteroids, orbiting Earth or Mars, and landing on the moon. When NASA officials saw the first flight test, they offered Weston and his team $80 million to use their design for the LADEE mission, which will gather dust and atmosphere samples from the moon in 2011."
Re:Is it big enough for a dead Vulcan to fit in? (Score:1, Insightful)
what took the so long? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Finally using some common sense (Score:3, Insightful)
Pork belly politics doesn't work this way.
Re:$4 million to make it work... (Score:4, Insightful)
NASA does have the first human to visit and return from another (tries to find the word)...the moon...
They do have an impressive roster though, the Saturn V, the Shuttle, etc... but most of their accomplishments can't really even be claimed as "American" (as in the 'United States Of') because most of their key employees were/are form other countries... they are kind of like Microsoft (or any other large company) in that way, we'll buy them so we can say its ours...
$4million$ (Score:5, Insightful)
So what's a square dollar worth these days?
(this _is_ news for nerds)
Re:what took the so long? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:what took the so long? (Score:5, Insightful)
They've started with it, and subsequently dropped it, multiple times. Mostly because this is one of those ideas that seems great on paper, but doesn't actually work out too well in real life.
Some probes need 3 axis stabilization, others can simply spin, yet others can use gravity gradient. Some probes need to dissipate a lot of heat from their instruments, others much less. One probe has a handful of instruments each the size of your PC desktop, another probe has a single instrument the size of a small car. Etc... Etc...
The number of possible permutations is simply too large to be accommodated by any single standard bus, or even a reasonable number of standardized buses. To get an idea of the scale of the problem - imagine trying to base every wheeled vehicle on the road from an 18-wheeler down to a motor scooter off of a single standard bus
Not such a great idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
In general, it's poor economy.
You see you have the fixed cost of the rocket, launchpad, and launch team. Many tens of millions of dollars. Even if you drove the spacecraft cost down to zero, it won't affect the total very much.
Meanwhile all the cost is at risk if the spacecraft fails.
In general it's penny wise and pound foolish to economize on the spacecraft.
Re:what took the so long? (Score:1, Insightful)
It is only when launching a sattelite becomes more affordable that it starts to make sense and accept some compromises with a generic platform.
Re:what took the so long? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$4 million to make it work... (Score:3, Insightful)
And yes, many German scientists were seeking out American soldiers toward the end of WWII because they feared what the Russians would make them do.
Re:what took the so long? (Score:2, Insightful)