Is NASA Accepting Casino Ads on MSL?

What took so long? Like most who care at all about any space program, We don't care if taco bell or a big golden arch is plastered across a delta V. The thing is if there is a mission failure or god forbid a astronaut loses their life, These corporate sponsor would feel it just like NASA. That is what keeps this from happening. Space exploration even getting a ship into LEO isn't an easy task. At the end of the day for robotic mission this sort of corporate sponsorship is totally valid and will work and is quit frankly a wonderful Idea. For human space flight I don't think that sort of corp. sponsorship is gonna fly. It is simply to risky.

Well lets see...

It is well documented the MSL has effectively raided every possible pool of money it could to get off the ground and we are still needing more funding.

Moreover, we missed the Mars launch window. Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is the first time since the 1990s we have NOT sent a mission to Mars when we had the chance.

So why not gamble? I am putting the house, farm, horse, ranch, and MSL (and the bloated cow) on red.

Spin that wheel!!! Come on red!!!

I mean, if we want out of the red and into the black, we are going to have to hit the jackpot anyways. Our track record proves that we certainly cannot manage our budget or timeline effectively.

VR
RS327

"Our track record proves that we certainly cannot manage our budget or timeline effectively."
Well the main reason for the delay with the MSL was related to the attempt to use dry Titanium lubricant for the actuators. If it had worked it would have increased actuator longevity, required less power for heating, and allowed for the MSL to land in colder locations on Mars.

I think -- respectfully -- that PAO is probably wrong.

Anyone can put their name on MSL via their "Send Your Name To Mars" promotion. Here's the direct link (the link in the press release is to the general "participate" page):

http://mars9.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/index.cfm

... but you can put any two words you want in there. I assume the Buzzluck people just put "Buzzluck.com" and "Never Bored" in as the first and last names. Bingo presto, their claim is now, technically, factually correct: those names are going to Mars, and it was at the "offer" of NASA. (I assume nobody's sifting through those entries to take out commercial promos -- there are probably only profanity filters.)

I believe the technical term of art for this is "gaming the system". :)