NASA's Latest Budget Solution: Money Seeking Droids
NASA Deploys Congressional Rover To Search For Funding, The Onion
“Calling the program “the most crucial in the agency’s history,” researchers at NASA announced Wednesday they have successfully deployed a Special Exploratory Rover to Congress as part of an open-ended mission to seek out any possible trace of funding on Capitol Hill. The rover, named Hope, is a remotely operated, semi-autonomous vehicle outfitted with ultra-sensitive equipment that can detect even the smallest amounts of program-sustaining revenue, NASA scientists confirmed.”
I thought those things followed the water?
I heard there was going to be a thermal imager on board, but scientists decided against it when they realized there would be too much hot air.
“But we have engineered this vehicle to withstand the most challenging fiscal landscape”
There is so much truth in this statement tho. Witness how C-17 cargo plane is engineered exactly to withstand the most challenging fiscal landscape and be almost impossible to cancel, even though Pentagon doesn’t want any more of them.
I have the sneaking suspicion that Dr. Jeff Foust moonlights for The Onion; he’s a funny guy and their NASA/space-related articles are always exceptionally on-point.
This mission might succeed, so long as they pick the right launch vehicle…
Does this prove that robots are superior even for a misison previously thought to require the presence of astronauts to cope with the unexpected? Where does this leave humans? Are we destined to be the servants of the machines?
NASAS GOING TO MARS
If money is so tight as this article suggests doesn’t this increase the possibility of a Red Dragon sample return mission being selected in the near future?Isn’t it time to tell congress and senate to do a sample return from Mars while reducing the cost of going to mars?
Isn’t a dragon sample return mission cheaper than other approaches?
Didn’t NASA already decided a propulsive type landing with dragon is the cheapest way to land a heavy payload on Mars?
Isn’t it time to get Spacex a little Mars landing practice?
Isn’t it time to make some fuel on Mars for a Mars to earth flight?
Is Nasa is serious about us going to Mars or is it bullshit?
These capital hill rovers should be saying we want SpaceX going to Mars Now, so the people can get more science for their buck.
Is nasa going to Mars or is it just more bullshit?
Maybe the logo for nasa should be an onion instead.
The Onion is a satire website.
That said, really good satire sometimes comes closer to the truth than we’d like to admit.
Yes, it is true NASA does not have enough funding for manned missions to Mars.
As far as I know, there is no proposal for a “Red Dragon” type mission. It has been suggested as a possibility, and it certainly is possible to do, but there is no formal proposal for it to happen. The order these things go in is: proposal – funding for study – funding for design – hardware and instrument fabrication and testing – final assembly – launch. A “Red Dragon” type mission hasn’t even gotten to the first step.
No, it’s not clear that a “Red Dragon” would be cheaper, actually the baseline for a Mars sample return is a solid rocket motor on top of a MPL / Phoenix type lander.
NASA is, of course, serious about going to Mars, but it will need considerably more funding to do so.
I am very aware the Onion is satire
OK, you just seemed to be taking it seriously.
Lolol
You must have missed my suggestion of NASA changing their logo to an Onion 🙂