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Re: Wasteful NASA Martian Programs and "Martian" Meteorites
- To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Subject: Re: Wasteful NASA Martian Programs and "Martian" Meteorites
- From: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>
- Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 17:58:20 GMT
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- Resent-Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 13:00:16 -0500 (EST)
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>If the Manned Mission to Mars was NOT funded by Congress, how many
>rocket-scientists would be unemployed?
Answer: 0. There is currently no manned mission program to Mars, so
there is no one to lay off if the program is not funded. In fact, a manned
mission to Mars has not even been proposed yet. I think the
question you are asking is how many people would be employed if a
manned mission to Mars is funded, and the answer a big unknown at this point.
It all depends on factors as total budget to the program, how the mission is
planned, the length of the program, etc. All of these factors are TBD.
Some people may
be thinking about it, and there are different ways of doing a manned
mission to Mars, but nothing concrete has come forth yet.
The only approved mission to Mars are all unmanned missions.
There is the Mars Global Surveyor program, which has the 1998 orbiter/lander
the only thing approved thus far. There will be a probable sample return
follow-on from this program with launches in 2001, 2003 & 2005, with the
2005 launch returning actual samples. The Deep Space 1
mission will be launched next year and will do a Mars flyby. Beyond that,
nothing has been decided, and in particular, nothing definite
relating to any manned mission to Mars.
Ron Baalke