Punishing Success
Spirit and Opportunity — the Mars Exploration Rovers — represent one of the most successful and cost-effective NASA programs, and one of the greatest engineering achievements, of my lifetime. Designed and intended for a three-month mission, both rovers now are into their fifth year of operation.
Some people have heard me argue that any civilization worthy of that term would regard the people behind this mission the way we tend to regard rock stars.
Instead, it turns out we’re living in a society which is slashing the rover program’s budget, requiring one vehicle’s operations to be suspended indefinitely and the other’s curtailed.
Addendum: See this JPL video from January about the rovers’ fourth anniversary on Mars. Or just read the transcript if you can’t view the video.
Meanwhile, CNN now is reporting “mixed signals” regarding the cuts, with a spokesman saying that NASA administrator Michael Griffin would not “shut down” one of the two rovers.
There’s no particular alternative implication provided by the spokesperson to back up this sudden hedging of the original story, so at this stage it’s unclear just what it is NASA intends.
Addendum: I find this potentiality depressing. Cheer me up by buying me the two NOVA specials on the rovers.