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NASA decides not to launch two already-built asteroid probes

• tekla 3y ago
  No funding. Seems reasonable
• 1970-01-01 3y ago
  >NASA has not ruled out using the twin asteroid probes for a future mission if funding becomes available, but Ianson said: “There are no current plans for use of these spacecraft.” Maybe they can have it ready for the next Oumuamua asteroid :)
• jjk166 3y ago
  > Janus was designed to fly to two binary asteroids—consisting of two bodies near one another—that orbit the Sun closer to Earth than the metallic asteroid Psyche. While the Psyche mission can still reach its asteroid destination and accomplish its science mission with a launch this year, the asteroids targeted by Janus will have changed positions in the Solar System by too much since last year. They are no longer accessible to the two Janus spacecraft without flying too far from the Sun for their solar arrays to generate sufficient power. Calling this a funding issue seems strange. They missed the launch window. Yeah you could potentially pump more money in and use them for something else, but that's not the reason they aren't launching. That sufficient additional money can make a problem go away doesn't typically mean lack of money is the problem.
  • sidewndr46 3y ago
    the term is 'boondoggle'. NASA is too distracted with manned spaceflight to adequately manage its unmanned missions
    • csb6 3y ago
      There’s no reason to think that NASA’s manned program took away resources from these probe missions. From the article, it seems like the problem is that the Janus probes were going to piggyback on another mission (Psyche) that got delayed for a year due to software issues, causing Janus to miss its window. Psyche seems to have been poorly managed and understaffed, but since the JPL primarily works on unmanned missions I don’t see how you could confidently blame manned programs for the management failure.