First the White House dropped the idea of retrieving soil samples from Mars. Now it is going after the rover collecting those samples.
This week NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages the rovers on Mars, announced the layoff of 550 workers, stating:
In order to best position JPL going forward, we are taking steps to restructure and establish an appropriate size to ensure future success. As part of this effort, JPL is undergoing a realignment of its workforce, including a reduction in staff. This reduction — part of a reorganization that began in July and not related to the current government shutdown — will affect approximately 550 of our colleagues across technical, business, and support areas.
One of the employees at JPL who formerly operated rovers noted that the White House cuts is reducing the funding for the Perseverance Mars rover, which collected the soil samples, by two-thirds. He was quoted as saying that they cuts are “…just enough to technically keep it going and not get the full PR backlash of canceling a working rover.”
We only have two rovers left on Mars, the Perseverance rover and the Curiosity rover. Are we going to see these rovers go dark in the near future as they continue to look for life on the planet? And what does it say that we are hoping to put humans on Mars when we cannot even find a way to properly fund the robots that are already there? Would you be your life on this government?
None of this give the US public any confidence, nor does it give bright students much hope for a NASA career when the roles they want to fill are being eliminated.
We are treading water nowadays rather than reaching for the stars. It will have repercussions that may be long-lasting.
Our Awesome Universe 