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NASA is really good at planning future missions. Implementing them? I've heard hundreds of fantastical half-baked ideas and very few of them materialize over th
by LordLotherak 7y ago
NASA is really good at planning future missions. Implementing them? I've heard hundreds of fantastical half-baked ideas and very few of them materialize over the course of my 46 years on earth.
- nickserv 7y agoTheir robotic programs are generally great successes though - Mars rovers, Saturn, Pluto for the most recent achievements. Incredible stuff, and unmatched. Probably because the senate keeps their corrupt hands off of these types of missions.
- Sharlin 7y agoEh, almost every NASA robotic mission that has gotten this far in the design and selection process has also flown. They're way past the "fantastical half-baked idea" stage. The financial reality is that NASA can only finance one or two billion-dollar missions per decade, and the competition is rather fierce. To be selected as the New Frontiers class mission of the late 2020s is a big deal, and you can be sure that at this point the proposing team has made a very solid case for their mission.
- Robotbeat 7y agoYup. The robotic program has a very good track record of successes, even for crazy stuff like the Mars Science Laboratory’s sky crane descent stage: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s It’s the human spaceflight program that has had the, um, difficulties. There are signs of hope, though.