New Mars Forums

atomoid

Member

From: Santa Cruz, CA

Registered: 2004-02-13

Posts: 252

Re: Mars steerable parachute

Sydivers dont use old WW2-style parachutes anymore, they use paraglider type chutes of course!
why not do this for probe descent to land within 2.5 miles of target and shrink those big landing elipses!
okay, http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n040 … /]someones finally thinking about it how come i never thought of it? seems so obvious...

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"I think it would be a good idea". - [url=http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Mahatma_Gandhi/]Mahatma Gandhi[/url], when asked what he thought of Western civilization.

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars steerable parachute

What i do not really understand about this contract: why was it given to Boeing? If you read between the lines, all they contribute is some algorithm and oversight of the project. The real beef is done by smaller companies, uni's...

Boeing is probably going to charge $$$$$$ for a 100 line piece of code...

Why not give this to a smaller private company? Didn't they say they were going to do more stuff like that? X-38 used parafoils already, to do pin-point landing and AFAIK Boeing had nothing to do with that... Why not contract *those* people?

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,905

Re: Mars steerable parachute

Just what Nasa needs to do, award another contract to the big guy's in the space biz. Did not the commissions final report say to use the private industry. I know that they recently asked for information on just that section of the report.

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars steerable parachute

Yes. That's what makes me kind of mad... This relatively small-scale project is just perfect for smaller businesses, not for giants like Boeinq et al.
And so I'm a bit confused by another crazy contract. Boeing builds crafts, not subsystems.

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,905

Re: Mars steerable parachute

What I find even funnier is how the Genesis spacecraft is coming back to Earth for retrival.

Commodore

Member

From: Upstate NY, USA

Registered: 2004-07-25

Posts: 1,021

Re: Mars steerable parachute

Just what Nasa needs to do, award another contract to the big guy's in the space biz. Did not the commissions final report say to use the private industry. I know that they recently asked for information on just that section of the report.

Boeing is private industry. But they are going to subcontract this out, balloning the cost.

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"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,905

Re: Mars steerable parachute

If it were a typical private industry they would be making this with no contracts as a commodity to sell to Nasa.