Letzten Monat hat die NASA den VIPER-Mondrover abgesagt. Ausgehend von einem Budget von 250 Millionen US-Dollar waren die Gesamtkosten auf 609,6 Millionen US-Dollar gestiegen – ein Lander, der jetzt 323 Millionen US-Dollar kostet, nicht eingerechnet. Die Reaktion war größtenteils negativ, aber einige sagen: „Der Skandal ist nicht, dass die NASA die Mission abgesagt hat. Der Skandal ist, dass die NASA so lange gewartet hat.“
https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/nasa-canceled-viper-thats-a-good-thing
2 Comments
I’m not sure if NASA is allowed to take initiatives with public money, but it seems like there is a deal that could be made here. Perhaps a sponsorship with Boeing, Airbus, a car brand, and then try to work something out with SpaceX or Ariannespace for a subsidized launch.
It’s a lot of money, but by space standards it’s surely not an insurmountable amount. Perhaps Jeff Bezos could launch it for cheap, if he got a good publicity deal out of it.
Anyone who works in the industry knows how badly covid affected costs. Machined parts (aluminum, stainless, titanium) have roughly tripled in price since 2019. So many shops closed down and didn’t reopen. Yes they went overbudget, but so has every program that was budgeted before covid and ran during and after it.