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Results of the meeting of the Special Committee NASA: Curiosity will drive less, more boring, 7 "alien" missions extended
Bashny.Net
If you look closely, you can see traces of wheels Curiosity, left them on the ground of Mars. I>
The other day, a special scientific committee assessed the performance of current NASA missions to other planets and outer space. In this case, the current estimated 7 mission, including rovers, Cassini probe, and some other (more - in the continuation). Committee NASA, the evaluator is endowed with considerable powers, and it is in effect simply complete any of the missions, if she received a negative assessment.
The good news is that all seven missions received excellent or good rating. However, the team Curiosity criticized for the fact that the rover "travels a lot, and a little boring." A special committee of discontent caused the rover team's intention to hold a total of 8 drilling operations, in addition to those already held.
Scientists believed that the rover inefficiently uses its scientific potential driving around Mars and looking at the clouds (in fact, one of the tasks of the rover - observation of the atmosphere of Mars). In general, anything critical, but the rover team was asked to add "more science" in the work plan Curiosity.
until the Committee meets, the rover calms himself contemplating the sky of Mars i>
By the way, two other missions, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Opportunity could be closed at all, but successfully avoided such undesirable end. LRO and Opportunity will be able to work for another two years until the next meeting of the above-mentioned committee. However, one of the tools LRO, Radar Mini-RF, is no longer used.
The best score among all the missions received probe Cassini, who received 3 additional years to work with Saturn and its moons. Cassini team decided to conduct the probe between the surface of Saturn's rings and the domestic sector.
That's assessment, which received various NASA missions by committee:
Cassini (1997) Excellent Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2009) excellent / very good Mars Opportunity rover (2003) excellent / very good < Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005) excellent / very good Mars Express (European-led mission, 2003) Very good Mars Odyssey (2001) Very good < Mars Curiosity rover (2011) Very good / Good
Let's hope that everything will go smoothly and on, and no mission in the near future will not be closed.
Via sciencemag
Source: habrahabr.ru/post/236109/
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