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Given the insane budget for Webb ($11 billion max cap), the notion that GEMS was going to be 20% to 30% over budget, and that would end up around maybe $150 mil
by adventureful 14y ago
Given the insane budget for Webb ($11 billion max cap), the notion that GEMS was going to be 20% to 30% over budget, and that would end up around maybe $150 million total, it seems absurd to kill this project. This is the kind of science NASA should be doing.
- iwwr 14y agoNASA is killing every project it can to not lose the James Webb. Casulties so far are a Mars rover and a Jupiter orbiter, as well as no new missions planned for the next decade. The question is, what happened to the Shuttle portion of the budged. You'd think they have more money for robotic spacecraft after that.
- hexagonal 14y agoNASA's paying for Falcon 9 development by proxy. And the Antares launch system, and the shuttle-derived SLS.
- adventureful 14y agoGood question, looking up the budget, they allocated about $3 billion in 2009 for the Shuttle program (17% of their budget). Mind boggling to think they spent $200 billion on that program over its life. Scientific breakthrough doesn't function by sheer dollar command, but it's hard not to think about what could have been done with that money instead ($20 billion for a cheaper SpaceX style launch system, $180 billion redirected toward research, invention, X Prize awards, telescopes, satellites, rovers, etc).