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NUCLEARSPACE MESSAGE BOARD (ACTIVE) -> NUCLEAR POWER AND PROPULSION IN SPACE -> Chemcam is to mission on MSL
Post Info TOPIC: Chemcam is to mission on MSL
NUKE ROCKY44


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Chemcam is to mission on MSL
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 The Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), the Laser-Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging (ChemCam) are now restored to the project.
In the case of ChemCam, LANL, the French Space Agency (CNES), and even other MSL instrument team members have developed a series of descopes and support arrangements to allow instrument completion, reducing the development cost-to-go by a little over 80%--i.e., from $2.5M to about $400K. As a result, ChemCam will be funded another $400K by the Mars Exploration Program, allowing them to complete development.
That's cool, a cost reduction...but who was left holding the bag at $2.1M-Santa? biggrin

[article]

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Bruce Behrhorst
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I don't really understand why this is a problem--this single instrument was one of the more importnat ones for the mission--I'm not really sure what the technical difficulty was--other than it's just plain hard making hardware that won't immediately fail from the rigours of interplanetary travel...


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