A Monument to Human Achievement...and Stupidity

Did you hear they're going to shut down one of the Mars rovers, Spirit? Do you want to know why?

Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday.

The news comes amid belt-tightening at NASA headquarters, which is under pressure to cover cost overruns of a flagship Mars mission to land a Hummer-sized rover on the Red Planet next year.

It costs NASA about $20 million annually to keep the rovers running. The latest directive from NASA to cut $4 million means Spirit will be forced into hibernation in the coming weeks, said principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University.

Besides resting Spirit, scientists also likely will have to reduce exploration by Opportunity, which is probing a large crater near the equator. Instead of sending up commands to Opportunity every day to drive or explore a rock, its activities may be limited to every other day, said John Callas, the Mars Exploration Rover project manager at JPL.

"Any cut at any time when these rovers are healthy would be bad timing," Callas said. "These rovers are still viable capable vehicles in very good health."

So let's review. Over the weekend the Fed can find $30 billion to bail out the dumbasses at Bear Stearns, who are supposed to understand the difference between a good investment and a bad one, but apparently don't. Meanwhile the scientists who engineer a pair of robots, load them in a rocket, fire them into space, land them on the next planet over, and operate them for 4 years can't get a lousy $20 million to keep them running.

Unbelievable.