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In short, the Voyager spacecraft were designed (after considerable design and operational experience from Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft) to be able to operate
by basementcat 2y ago
In short, the Voyager spacecraft were designed (after considerable design and operational experience from Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft) to be able to operate for a long time largely automatically without too much hand-holding. All major systems are multiply redundant and may be remotely turned on and off. While there has been personnel turnover on the program, it has not been of a magnitude to jeopardize program continuation. Finally, program management has been media savvy and well politically connected ensuring that operations are still funded. (Contrast with other missions such as Magellan to Venus which was deorbited while it still had propellant reserve leaving some portions of the planet unmapped)
JPL has (or had?) a "retiree badge" program that permitted retired staff to continue to access their office. Many programs benefited from highly knowledgeable personnel essentially continuing to report to the office every day without pay (not being paid comes with the luxury of not having to worry about being laid off if your charge accounts don’t have enough funds!) It was an absolute privilege to learn from these people.
- SSLy 2y agoSo, culture preservation is important for success of highly technical endeavours. Don't tell it to your run of the mill MBA.
- basementcat 2y agoI think it is inevitable that organizational "culture" changes. The tricky part is figuring out exactly what parts need change and what parts don’t. For example JPL used to have beauty pageants ("Miss Guided Missile"). More recently, management appears to be trying to adopt policies and procedures from some venture funded commercial space companies. It is not clear how helpful these efforts will be given that these organizations are in fundamentally different businesses. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/slice-of-history-70th-anniversary-of-miss-guided-missile https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/slice-of-history-70th-annive...
- fnord77 2y ago[flagged]
- biofox 2y agoAs a male scientist and engineer, I am also on antidepressants :(
- ceejayoz 2y ago[flagged]
- malfist 2y agoI don't think having beauty pageants keep women from being depressed
- you_should_die 2y ago[dead]
- mistermann 2y agoI wonder what the fact of the matter is. It'd be rather hilarious if Humans have been shooting ourselves in the feet for the last few decades with many of our social engineering initiatives. And the reproduction rates chart is ugly.
- darby_nine 2y agoWho wants to bring a baby onto a sinking ship?
- Loudergood 2y agoExactly, it's simple economics.
- TimeBearingDown 2y agoModern information access seems to have led to the sinking ship feeling, across many of the most prosperous countries, and so effectively that world wars, deadlier pandemics, and thermonuclear brinkmanship can scarcely compare.
- ozim 2y agoRun off the mill MBAs are not allowed anywhere near to stuff as important as Voyager. All the web apps, that run of the mill devs are implementing are nowhere near as important as voyager. I think we are fine ;)
- darby_nine 2y agoIt also helps that JPL is a public good and not a wealth-extraction machine
- me_me_me 2y agobut if someone is paid $0 it must mean they are worthless, surely the excel file doesnt lie
- efitz 2y agoNo, you need to think like an MBA. It means that they are the most valuable employees, because their productivity per dollar is infinite. It also means that when you sort all the (non-executive, of course!) employees by total comp in preparation for layoffs to make the budget look better, they are at the bottom of the list.
- me_me_me 2y agooh yes, you are absolutely right :D
- superxpro12 2y ago[flagged]
- appendix-rock 2y agoI guarantee you that a run of the mill MBA program will say something about institutional knowledge being important. You’re needlessly and unjustifiably finding an excuse to dunk on something that you know people here dislike, despite it having very little to do with the actual topic. Which…fine. But you’re also so keen to do it that you aren’t even correct. Please stop projecting every gripe you have with your boss onto this mythical “evil MBA”.
- tecleandor 2y agoYeah! Being almost 50 years old it's not like people is not working there anymore but that probably a bunch of people in the original project has already died! Great forward thinking
- mistermann 2y agoAny idea how many people took advantage of the retiree badge program, or any individual people who continued to put in substantial hours?
- wildzzz 2y agoWe do something similar at my job for the greybeards that were very influential on our current projects. They "retire" but are retained as a very part time employee that only get paid if we need to bring them in for a day or two to help answer some questions. The managers love it because they don't need to find work for this person, pay for any benefits, or need to get approvals to pay them like contractors. As long as we keep doing relevant work to their expertise, they will continue being retained. There is a limit for how many hours they can put in because these people are incredibly expensive as they usually retire at the top engineer level and retain the equivalent hourly wage for that position.
- appendix-rock 2y agoPaying someone as sporadically as you would a contractor but they’re only getting their usual hourly wage? Doesn’t sound expensive to me. Sounds like a ridiculously good deal for the employer.