Hard feelings over mission change for NASA’s Pluto spacecraft | Hacker News Reader

Hard feelings over mission change for NASA’s Pluto spacecraft

nature.com

57 pointspseudolus18 comments

Some context: NASA missions are built and funded for finite “prime” missions. After that they undergo external “senior reviews” every two years. All operating missions are stack ranked against each other based on their scientific productivity. Low performing missions are turned off and the money used for other things. In this case it’s not being turned off but reprioritized.

This just reads to me like Alan Stern is salty that they got a low ranking and his mission is being taken from him. But that’s why the senior review asks an external panel and not the PIs!

Alan Stern has not been averse to controversy:

https://www.universetoday.com/21468/ex-nasa-associate-admini...

https://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highl...

I remember reading his book and finding him extremely boisterous. Yes, the mission is amazing but so too is the size of his ego.

George Bernard Shaw said “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

This seems like sensationalist science journalism. It says "scientists" aren't happy about the decision, but the only evidence it provides is this singular quote:

>But some are unhappy with the decision, and worry that planetary studies are being truncated too soon. “Scientifically, I just don’t feel that we’re at diminishing returns yet,” says Kelsi Singer, the mission’s project scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Like, ok? The whole reason they're shifting to heliophysics is because there are no other objects they're aware of for this probe to explore. What else is it going to do? What do these "scientists" want it to do instead?

"There’s going to be a boarding party on the first of October next year,” says Alan Stern, the mission’s principal investigator"

I think the unstated is that the original group of scientists feels like they are being put out to pasture in favor of a new set of researchers. But as you mentioned, if there aren't any more Kuiper belt objects on the "horizon", it seems like the right move.

Plus the door is still open if another belt object is found before the spacecraft leaves the area. Anyway it's not like they can put the brakes on and stay: how much delta V can they have fuel left for ?

Maybe I’m wrong, but having it classified as a planetary mission probably funds their positions and a lot of continued research (even if the research is based on data already taken). Reclassifying the mission probably means the scientists need to look for new sources of funding. So I get that they’re not happy, but it sounds like a rational decision on NASA’s part.

> "NASA will fund the mission from its planetary science budget until 30 September 2024. After that, management could be taken over by the much smaller heliophysics division, potentially involving a new group of scientists."

Sounds like bad management. Why not just have a joint project instead of a takeover? Granted this means more money has to be spent since you have more team members. Certainly a better use of money than many other idiotic things the federal government gets up to, anyway, since heliophysics is important and planetary science is important.

I assume they're trying to allow as much cooperation as possible, but at the end of the day you have to choose where to point the sensors and cameras, so it's largely a zero-sum game that somebody has to lose.

There's also surely a budgetary consideration at play. (Sadly, give NASA all the money!!)

25 billion per year ought to be enough for anybody- that's 1/3 of total us ukraine aid! every year! for goofy space stuff!

Nothing about studying space is “goofy.” Want to know more about theoretical physics at ever higher energies or smaller scales? The universe is going to provide the means to study that, not any human engineering project until we’re building mega structures. Want to keep as much earth as pristine as possible? Then do industry off earth. There’s literally everything in space.

That seems to be a political rather than a scientific solution: two groups want the same thing, so let's give them each part of it.

> heliophysics is important and planetary science is important

yes, but they can only accomplish one with the spacecraft that's out there, apparently. So someone has to feel bad.

This is something many people miss, compromise is not always a desirable outcome in the political process. Compromise often generates the worst outcomes of all decisions and none of the advantages.

Agreed. I'll put in $1k. How much will you contribute?

I think there's a technical breach of communication across the board

like this Alan Stern person seems unaware that the money NASA gets to spend is really made up credit owned by the distant future through means of the "taxpayer"

why bother about 'budgets' when money gets printed for 'them'? (but them is NASA, not any of the humans working in it)

Tracking space weather and studying heliophysics sounds more useful than exploring the Kuiper belt, but much less fun.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com