Lockheed Gets $485M From NASA To Create MAVEN Craft 94
coondoggie writes to tell us that Lockheed Martin has landed a $485 million contract to create the spacecraft for NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) project. "MAVEN is the second mission in NASA's Mars Scout Program — a series of small, low-cost, principal investigator-led missions to the Red Planet, NASA said. The Phoenix Mars Lander was the first mission under the program. Lockheed Martin is the industry partner on the Phoenix mission. It designed and built the spacecraft, and also provided flight operations and currently surface operations for the lander. The mission has been extended through Sept. 30, 2008."
Re:MAVEN not MAVAN (Score:2, Funny)
Hey! That was so people wouldn't catch the dupe!
No need to spend that much (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MAVEN not MAVAN (Score:5, Funny)
After all, slashdot had an article about MAVEN only couple of days ago: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/16/0123253 [slashdot.org] I don't think it's possible that they would post another one about the exact same project. That would be a dupe!
Re:No need to spend that much (Score:3, Funny)
Forget that MAVAN shit. If you're ready to part with gas, grass, or ass, you can ride in MYVAN for free.
Should be no problem, I had mexican for lunch.
What no massive bid war? (Score:5, Funny)
So, we're not going to have a highly publicized 6 month bid process, and then give it to the company with the better plane, and then take it away because the local company is crying about sour grapes? And then have them both re-bid, and then cancel that project because it looks again like the company that start with a B is starting ti whine AGAIN because they just can't compete in the competitive market because their damn plane just isn't good enough. So we scrap the whole damn idea till "later" and make our guys fly around in 30 year old gas filled bombs with outdated electronics hoping that one doesn't fuckin' blow up over a residential area?
What's the fun in that? I didn't get a notice to bid! I'm going to congress!
Re:Uh oh... (Score:3, Funny)
"I sure hope they choose the metric system!"
Well, I was thinking about it. Is it $485M metric or imperial dollars?
Re:MAVEN not MAVAN (Score:3, Funny)
Same goals, but one project uses English units and the other Metric. ...
Hopefully there won't any confusion there at NASA