DAWN now official dead

[n_kitson]

After telling us that DAWN was indefinitely delayed a few months ago, the mission has now been offcially canned.<br /><br />Question:<br />1. What happens to the 90% complete hardware?<br />2. What happens to the engineers that have spent their careers designing and building this spacecraft?<br />3. Who gets fired for wasting $371 million?<br /><font color="yellow"><br />Asteroid mission canceled in latest NASA setback<br /><br />LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- NASA on Thursday canceled a mission to visit two asteroids, five months after the program was put on hold because of cost overruns and technical problems.<br /><br />The cancellation is the latest setback for NASA, which has been forced to delay science missions to focus on developing a new manned spacecraft to return to the moon in the next decade.<br /><br />The project was capped at around $371 million, project scientists said previously. But scientists asked for an additional $40 million last year.<br /><br />The Dawn spacecraft was supposed to lift off in June on a nine-year voyage to two of the solar system's largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta, which reside in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.<br /><br />Asteroids are believed to be remnants from the solar system's formation about 4.5 billion years ago, and studying them could provide clues into how the sun and planets formed.<br /><br />Dawn would have been the first spacecraft to orbit the two asteroids, which scientists believe formed in different parts of the solar system and had different evolutionary processes.<br /><br />Dawn was part of a NASA program called Discovery that aims to explore the solar system on what the space agency considers to be a shoestring budget. The program includes the Stardust mission, which returned to Earth in January with samples of comet dust.<br /><br />The Dawn mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.<br />Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. </font>/safety_wrapper>

 

[spacefire]

1. Goes in storage<br />2. See 3<br />3. See 2 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[no_way]

you can get all these questions answered by looking at the sad story of the X-38 program

 

[mattblack]

A bloody shame!! Ceres and Vesta are important objects. I guess someone decided that there had been enough asteroid landings, flybys and samplings in recent years. But Ceres and Vesta are PLANETOIDS, of great scientific interest and potential, different from the asteroids visited in recent years. For the price of a few fighter planes, we've lost for at least a decade a spectacular mission... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[Philotas]

Swear words is too weak express the stupidness of this. Dang, what now for Ceres?<br /><br />Money should be taken from the CEV in order to complete this. This is way better spent money. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mattblack]

>>Money should be taken from the CEV in order to complete this<<<br /><br />NO!! Money should be taken from multi-billion dollar black holes like the weaponisation of space and more specifically, the ballistic missile defence program (oh, jeez; I feel another digression/argument coming on...) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[lbiderman]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>NO!! Money should be taken from multi-billion dollar black holes like the weaponisation of space and more specifically, the ballistic missile defence program (oh, jeez; I feel another digression/argument coming on...) <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />Yep, you are right with the argument part. Let´s keep our mind in the issue of the thread. We have Free Space for political arena.

 

[digitalman2]

I saw an article that quoted Andrew Dantzler saying the vehicle was only 50% complete. If it is actually 90% complete, where does this 50% figure come from?

 

[mattblack]

Agreed, lbiderman, though my point was still quite relevant in context to the statement I was commenting on. I'd find it hard to believe that any discussion on Dawn's funding would not at some point include the money spent on the weaponisation of space. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[mikeemmert]

I agree.<br /><br />Why <i>don't</i> you take it to free space? I'll reply - tommorow, after I get some shut-eye.<br /><br />Dawn is not a waste of money. Missile defense is. They can lead the attack with nuclear weapons, even though wires and balloons will probably do the job. It just doesn't work, people. See you in Free Space.

 

[alokmohan]

Basically space reseach is for defence purpose.No nation can aford to spend money on two asteroids.

 

[mogster]

There's 100m £UK (200m$ ?) being spent on a new shopping centre in my town. Its a smallish town and I can't see why we need more shops.<br /><br />$30m to keep this project alive really isn't a lot of money these days, not when it means wasting 100s of millions that have already been spent.

 

[Philotas]

<font color="yellow">NO!! Money should be taken from multi-billion dollar black holes like the weaponisation of space and more specifically, the ballistic missile defence program (oh, jeez; I feel another digression/argument coming on...) </font><br /><br />Of course; but how realistic is that? <br /><br />The day every human lay down it`s weapons...is when we discuss that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[jwsmith]

alokmohan writes: >> Basically space reseach is for defence purpose.No nation can aford to spend money on two asteroids. <<<br /><br />I agree. Space Research and operation in space is not a proper function of a government except for the national defense of the land mass it repesents. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2">John Wayne Smith, CEO</font></p><p><font size="2">1000 Planets, Inc</font></p><p><font size="2">Http://www.1000Planets.com</font></p><p><font size="2">203 W.Magnolia St.</font></p><p><font size="2">Leesbutg Florida 34748</font></p><p><font size="2">Ph: 352 787 5550</font></p><p><font size="2">email jwsmith42000@aol.com</font></p> </div>

 

[no_way]

Here is how the statements changed from a certain mr. Administrator over a short period of time:<br /><br />We are NOT going to take a penny from science programs to pay for STS/ISS/VSE<br /><br />We are _delaying_ some programs to pay for STS/ISS/VSE, but we are not cancelling anything<br /><br />Oh yeah .. we are cancelling some stuff indeed ..<br /><br /><br />not that i particularly care any of the projects under question, but backtracking from statements like this does not help to build one's credibility.

 

[kdavis007]

So what??? If people really care about scientific missions, why don't they get together launch a satellite and charge people to view the pictures to fund future missions...

 

[mattblack]

I'm sorry, I just COULDN'T not comment on this:<br /><br /> />>Basically space reseach is for defence purpose.No nation can aford to spend money on two asteroids.<<<br /><br />What? Are you kidding me?! Sheesh... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Dawn may not be dead after all -- NASA is reviewing the decision to cancel it in response to a JPL challenge of the decision to cancel the mission.<br /><br />AP: NASA Reviews Canceled Asteroid Mission <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[rybanis]

Heeey good news.<br /><br /><br />I'm personally hoping that one day we might see SpaceX launchers helping science by offering low cost access to space. Private enterprises might be able to do space-science without having to get involved with NASA. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[tomnackid]

So you are saying rather than being "DAWN of the Dead" its not quite dead or alive...sort of undead? Who's running this program? George Romero?<br /><br />"When there's no more money in NASA's budget the dead probes will walk the Earth..."