X-prize! $100M to the first person to return a 25kg sample from Mars surface by 31 Dec 2029.
What is this obsession with $100M? First prize would have to be $1B to be plausible, and there’d also have to be prizes for the also rans or, once again, no takers. Remember America’s Space Prize? $100M would be beer money for SpaceX.
Second place is first loser. And the only people who should win, are winners. Also rans? Losers who are in it to get some crumbs off the table.
Nobody remembers who was second to solo the Atlantic, nor do they care.
Nobody remembers who was second to solo the Atlantic, nor do they care.
Well she’s more remembered for disappearing over Howell Island than crossing the Atlantic solo (again).
Nor to we remember much of Alcock and Brown, the first to do it. Brits, it’s always the Brits….
Upon landing in Paris after his own record-breaking flight in 1927, Charles Lindbergh told the crowd welcoming him that “Alcock and Brown showed me the way!”[41]
Howland Island. Memory…
Howell Island?
Isn’t that one properly named Gilligan’s Island? Or did Thurston spread enough money around to get it named after him?
Howell Island. Gilligan Adventure Tours sets sail only in stormy weather and takes you to the Grumby Hotel and Resort on the island. The Tour is free they only charge you to come home.
Boeing took the opportunity to take yet another pot shot at SpaceX with their comment about multi-launch, on-orbit assembly and refueling, just like the posters deriding SpaceX plans for getting to the lunar surface.
At least the messaging is consistent…
Say the magic words again: “Immensely complex & high risk.”
NASA needs it done for <$11B, so Boeing is putting in a cost-plus bid of $10.9B?
And then with change orders, the price will unexpectedly climb to ….$40-billion
See my comment below…
Mars Sample Return. Is this the honeypot that bankrupts NASA Space Science once and for all?
Does a government program ever die?
How long did the temporary tax on telephones, imposed to fund the Spanish-American War, last?
For long-distance calls?
Using Dr. Zubrin’s numbers for MMH/NTO mass converted to volume estimates for a MSR probe’s MAV here.
Is the price of the Mars Sample Return Program its MSRP? Seems redundant.
Mars Sample Return reminds me and my wife of all of the flyback booster programs we “worked on” throughout our careers. Translation: we were paid to think about it, but not ever attempt to do it.
It took Elon Musk to actually do it.
Hey tonight I’m sure I dug up some Mars samples I found next to my septic tank. I’d gladly hand them over to NASA for a $5M pittance. Would save ‘em a small fortune!
There never was a Mars Sample Return Mission. There is no Mars Sample Return Mission. There never will be a Mars Sample Return Mission.
There will only and forever be Mars Sample Return Mission studies performed by the delusional and the quacks.
NASA will finally set its samples when Musk stomps his boots on space rated fly paper when he get back
Well all I can say is they better hurry up and finish the Mars Sample Return Mission so we can clear the decks for the Europa Sample Return Mission. <:-)
To paraphrase the pricing on Mad Magazine: $40B Cheap.
When your object is a nail, every tool is a hammer. Says the man who just spent time separating bushings by hammering them with a big pair of lineman’s pliers. And pinched his thumb while at it.
When I helped my Dad farm, blood blisters and darkened fingernails were de rigueur. Welcome to the DGI* fraternity (with sympathy).
X-prize! $100M to the first person to return a 25kg sample from Mars surface by 31 Dec 2029.
What is this obsession with $100M? First prize would have to be $1B to be plausible, and there’d also have to be prizes for the also rans or, once again, no takers. Remember America’s Space Prize? $100M would be beer money for SpaceX.
Second place is first loser. And the only people who should win, are winners. Also rans? Losers who are in it to get some crumbs off the table.
Nobody remembers who was second to solo the Atlantic, nor do they care.
Nobody remembers who was second to solo the Atlantic, nor do they care.
Well she’s more remembered for disappearing over Howell Island than crossing the Atlantic solo (again).
Nor to we remember much of Alcock and Brown, the first to do it. Brits, it’s always the Brits….
Upon landing in Paris after his own record-breaking flight in 1927, Charles Lindbergh told the crowd welcoming him that “Alcock and Brown showed me the way!”[41]
Howland Island. Memory…
Howell Island?
Isn’t that one properly named Gilligan’s Island? Or did Thurston spread enough money around to get it named after him?
Howell Island. Gilligan Adventure Tours sets sail only in stormy weather and takes you to the Grumby Hotel and Resort on the island. The Tour is free they only charge you to come home.
Boeing took the opportunity to take yet another pot shot at SpaceX with their comment about multi-launch, on-orbit assembly and refueling, just like the posters deriding SpaceX plans for getting to the lunar surface.
At least the messaging is consistent…
Say the magic words again: “Immensely complex & high risk.”
NASA needs it done for <$11B, so Boeing is putting in a cost-plus bid of $10.9B?
And then with change orders, the price will unexpectedly climb to ….$40-billion
See my comment below…
Mars Sample Return. Is this the honeypot that bankrupts NASA Space Science once and for all?
Does a government program ever die?
How long did the temporary tax on telephones, imposed to fund the Spanish-American War, last?
For long-distance calls?
Using Dr. Zubrin’s numbers for MMH/NTO mass converted to volume estimates for a MSR probe’s MAV here.
Is the price of the Mars Sample Return Program its MSRP? Seems redundant.
Mars Sample Return reminds me and my wife of all of the flyback booster programs we “worked on” throughout our careers. Translation: we were paid to think about it, but not ever attempt to do it.
It took Elon Musk to actually do it.
Hey tonight I’m sure I dug up some Mars samples I found next to my septic tank. I’d gladly hand them over to NASA for a $5M pittance. Would save ‘em a small fortune!
There never was a Mars Sample Return Mission. There is no Mars Sample Return Mission. There never will be a Mars Sample Return Mission.
There will only and forever be Mars Sample Return Mission studies performed by the delusional and the quacks.
NASA will finally set its samples when Musk stomps his boots on space rated fly paper when he get back
Well all I can say is they better hurry up and finish the Mars Sample Return Mission so we can clear the decks for the Europa Sample Return Mission. <:-)
To paraphrase the pricing on Mad Magazine: $40B Cheap.
When your object is a nail, every tool is a hammer. Says the man who just spent time separating bushings by hammering them with a big pair of lineman’s pliers. And pinched his thumb while at it.
When I helped my Dad farm, blood blisters and darkened fingernails were de rigueur. Welcome to the DGI* fraternity (with sympathy).
*Dad Gum It. Our motto: Did Get It Done…