From Newsgroup: sci.space.policy
On Saturday, The Running Man queried:
On 07/09/2024 13:10 Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:
NASA has judged the October launch timing to be at risk, and has
delayed the trip to Mars by at least 6 months. New Glen will loft a
test prototype of the Blue Ring transfer vehicle instead. Launch dates
for both missions TBD, but Bezos really wants the first flight to be in
2024.
Though the optimal Mars window is about to close for 18-24 months,
there may be a practical but complex trajectory that could reduce the
wait.
I doubt New Glenn will fly before spring.
In any case ESCAPADE is something NASA slapped together to fly
something on the new vehicle. It isn't critical for NASA's Mars
exploration program.
I think you need to provide citations to support "slapped together to
fly something on the new vehicle". ESCAPADE's proposal was in 2018,
and built on a MISEN proposal from 2016. It's characteristics were
determined by being a low-cost explorer ...
"ESCAPADE builds on MAVENrCOs legacy for a fraction of the cost (<$80 million)."
<URL:
https://escapade.ssl.berkeley.edu/about/>
NASA has a separate office for matching missions to launch providers,
and I think they get the credit for scoring a cheap launch from a new provider, and that the mission was provider-agnostic as long as
possible.
New Glenn gets brownie points (good publicity), although they've now
lost some for missing the date. It also counts towards their
certification in bidding for DOD flights.
/dps
--
Killing a mouse was hardly a Nobel Prize-worthy exercise, and Lawrence
went apopleptic when he learned a lousy rodent had peed away all his
precious heavy water.
_The Disappearing Spoon_, Sam Kean
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