NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
1–10 of 54 posts
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#2I'm all for avoiding sunk-cost thinking, but considering that nearly half a billion was spent on this thing and its launch was barely a year away, it's hard to wrap my head around scrapping it entirely.
From the lost talent alone, this seems catastrophic - why would any of the country's best engineers want to work on ambitious NASA projects when they can be rug-pulled so close to completion?
Also, where's the accountability or at least lessons learned in this cancelation? Is there a single finding on how to reduce cost overruns for future missions?
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#3With the recently discovered caves in the moon[0] I always thought this particular mission had unfortunate timing since the caves are pretty far from the south pole. Maybe its cancelation is for the best after all.
Huge sunk cost though, it might lower confidence in future budget talks.
0: https://www.space.com/moon-cave-lunar-exploration-radar-imag...
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#4Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#5450M just for building the robot seems a bit steep; its not like they're actually getting it to the moon for that price. How much cheaper is it than just sending 3 dudes in a tin can to just dig the holes themselves?
Edit: I guess NASA says manned missions will cost billions. Still seems like half a billion is a lot for a glorified DJI drone thats only gotta make it to the moon lol. Regardless, money spent towards any space project tends to be money well spent, so compared to all the other spending I'd like to complain about, this isn't even on the radar.
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#6450M just for building the robot seems a bit steep; its not like they're actually getting it to the moon for that price. How much cheaper is it than just sending 3 dudes in a tin can to just dig the holes themselves? Edit: I guess NASA says manned missions will cost billions. Still seems like half a billion is a lot for a glorified DJI drone thats only gotta make it to the moon lol. Regardless, money spent towards an…
The risk of losing 3 dudes is greater than $450m.
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#7450M just for building the robot seems a bit steep; its not like they're actually getting it to the moon for that price. How much cheaper is it than just sending 3 dudes in a tin can to just dig the holes themselves? Edit: I guess NASA says manned missions will cost billions. Still seems like half a billion is a lot for a glorified DJI drone thats only gotta make it to the moon lol. Regardless, money spent towards an…
The risk of losing 3 dudes is greater than $450m.
Risk avoidance has its place, but fear didn't get us to the moon the first time and I'm confident it wont work this time either.
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#8With the recently discovered caves in the moon[0] I always thought this particular mission had unfortunate timing since the caves are pretty far from the south pole. Maybe its cancelation is for the best after all. Huge sunk cost though, it might lower confidence in future budget talks. 0: https://www.space.com/moon-cave-lunar-exploration-radar-imag...
It could be a win-win. Just imagine if NASA canceled the Starliner before it launched. Boeing could have been saved the embarrassment they are currently enduring, but they weren't so lucky to have their project canceled.
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#9450M just for building the robot seems a bit steep; its not like they're actually getting it to the moon for that price. How much cheaper is it than just sending 3 dudes in a tin can to just dig the holes themselves? Edit: I guess NASA says manned missions will cost billions. Still seems like half a billion is a lot for a glorified DJI drone thats only gotta make it to the moon lol. Regardless, money spent towards an…
If the documentary, "Armageddon" taught me anything, they'll do it if you just agree that they never have to pay taxes again, they can sleep in the Lincoln bedroom, and that you will cancel out a few parking tickets.
Re: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the Moon
#10I'm all for avoiding sunk-cost thinking, but considering that nearly half a billion was spent on this thing and its launch was barely a year away, it's hard to wrap my head around scrapping it entirely. From the lost talent alone, this seems catastrophic - why would any of the country's best engineers want to work on ambitious NASA projects when they can be rug-pulled so close to completion? Also, where's the account…
The Superconducting Super Collider was hoping to get to that "too far along to cancel" point as well. They thought that reaching 80% tunnel completion would do it. However it didn't, and it was canceled. I'm sure there's plenty of other examples as well.