LCROSS burns up its fuel reserve

[shadron]

The LCROSS mission detected a glitch in the operations that resulted in the fuel reserves being lost. They believe they may have enough left for the mission.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/26/moon-probe-fuel.html

I have to point out, in our civil war over manned vs robotic missions, that it would probably not have happened on a manned mission, but that is like yelling about gun control after some whacko kills a bunch. So I'll point it out, but not with an I-Told-You-So attitude, and certainly in sadness. It is also true that we could redo the entire LCROSS mission for less than a single manned mission would have cost, perhaps 4 or 5 times. Doesn't make it any happier.

Oh, hell. Forget what I said, it's just sour grapes. I hope the mission can still be run.

 

[MervinFerd]

Or, maybe 15 or 20 unmanned missions/manned mission...

The LCROSS mission detected a glitch in the operations that resulted in the fuel reserves being lost. They believe they may have enough left for the mission.

...It is also true that we could redo the entire LCROSS mission for less than a single manned mission would have cost, perhaps 4 or 5 times. Doesn't make it any happier.

...

I suspect the ratio of UnManned to Manned mission cost is much greater than 4-5 times. That would be especially true if the basic unmanned hardware were standardized and thoroughly tested--as would happen if we were making serious efforts at unmanned exploration instead of building that useless Space Station. What are those fellows doing up there?

Besides failure of an unmanned mission doesn't kill a human crew.