Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!jumbo!stolfi From: stolfi@jumbo.dec.com (Jorge Stolfi) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Soviet Phobos II probe fails just before final approach to moon Message-ID: <13665@jumbo.dec.com> Date: 2 Apr 89 00:54:09 GMT References: <8904010551.AA16140@ll-vlsi.arpa> Reply-To: stolfi@src.dec.com (Jorge Stolfi) Followup-To: sci.space Organization: DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto Lines: 35 First of all, I wish to thank Glenn Chapman for his *very* valuable postings. They alone are reason enough to subscribe to this newsgroup. Still, I can't resist replying to his editorial: > > One comment here, the researchers at the Soviet IKI institute, > which were in charge of the probe, have been pushing the line > that unmanned systems are cheaper and more reliable than manned > ones. They have been strongly suggesting that robots would be > better to explore Mars rather than a manned mission. > After this high profile mission failure they could find their > case substantially harder to present in the USSR. Well, it is certainly true that all manned Mars missions to date were 100% successful and cost practically nothing. I am even willing to believe that this will remain true for many, many years to come. Unfortunately, those missions haven't return much useful data, have they... ;-) Jorge Stolfi --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ``I mean it is not enough to launch a projectile and give it no further thought. We must follow it throughout its course, until the moment it hits the target.'' ``Well!'' exclamed the general and the major, a bit taken aback by the idea. ``Absolutely,'' Barbicane spoke with self-assurance. ``Absolutely. Otherwise the experiment would be pointless.'' --Verne, _From the Earth to the Moon_ (1865) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: The above opinions are just opinions.