Barring that, for political reason people make it too expensive. Its easy enough to do the listening portion of the DSN with linked Analog Sat Dishes. I read something in the early 90’s that a HAM group did just that. The problem came in getting past any encryption. At this time not sure if Voyager has any, but i sure hope it does. SO in the end you’ll need to have political permission to setup any type of foundation to take over the Operations of the probes and to release the data to the scietific community.

And as we see with some probes in the past a private organzation has exclusive rights to the data and gets to decide which data is released and when. People have a piece of the pie and don’t want to give it up. Human nature is if “I can’t have it.. no one can.” So it will be tough politically to do so. Which is my weakest area.

Now it is cheaper to streamline operations for probes then it is rovers. As rovers still need an actual physical mockup to run command sequences through to prevent killing of the rover, or getting it stuck on site. SO if you want to do that kind of missions you’ll need that infrastructure and that raises the price considerably. Space based probes are easier to model in the computer.

I agree with you.. NASA should be sending humans to Mars and beyond…

A Deep Space Network. Do you know where we can get one of those cheap?

“and your cynicism is not terribly constructive.”

But your naivete is endearing.

The Seti Institute has corporate support from Sun Microsystems, Xilinx, Agilent Technologies and Trimble Navigation, as well as lots of private individuals.

And don’t forget, Hubble is a joint project with ESA. Who said anything about giving money to Great Satan? (I have no idea where that one came from)

The point is that when folks work together they can get a lot more accomplished. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a legitimate worldwide “Save the Hubble” campaign couldn’t raise hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s the kind of project that brings people together, and your cynicism is not terribly constructive.

Let me ask you, how much infrastructure is actually required for what we do right now with Voyager I? Does it require lots of large buildings stuffed with computer equipment? Does it require large numbers of people manning banks of monitors? Is it something that could be replicated on a couple desktops at a handful of universities and staffed by grad students?

I strongly feel that the mindset that only NASA can do all of these things is part of what’s holding us back. NASA doesn’t need to be working on Voyager I, they need to be working on getting us to LEO and beyond LEO.

Because universities that do space science currently get a significant portion of their money from NASA already. You seem to be operating on the misperception that there is private money out there in sufficient quantities to fund these kinds of things. There isn’t. Private philanthropic organizations, for instance, operate at a substantially lower level than this. They don’t have the large amounts of money necessary to operate these programs. And private business wants a return on their investment.

“but having young students cutting their teeth on real life projects like establishing communications with or receiving data from a far flung probe seems like a good idea. I find it very difficult to believe that ONLY NASA can provide the facilities for support and personnel to run something like a Voyager 1 program. As for the money, that’s what alumni fund drives are for.”

Alumni fund drives pay for football stadiums. Can you name any other areas of scientific research that do not have direct commercial payoff that are funded by alumni fund drives? If you are insisting that it can be done another way, then the burden is upon you to prove that it can. What proof do you have?

“SETI at home has shown us that NASA doesn’t have all the answers, and it is possible to prosper outside their fold.”

What are the cost figures for SETI at home? How much money does it require each year?

“I also think any Hubble rescue should be spun off and funded through a worldwide fundraising effort.”

The world has its own problems. Besides, do you think that they honestly want to give money to the Great Satan?

“That’s when you get things like schoolkids in Libya collecting pennies to help save the Hubble.”

Why stop there? Why shouldn’t the CEV and the moon landing program be paid for based on private donations? The Mars rovers too? And while we’re at it, why don’t we take up a fund drive to privately fund the U.S. Navy?

SETI at home has shown us that NASA doesn’t have all the answers, and it is possible to prosper outside their fold. Let’s apply some of these lessons and learn new ones by getting creative with these old programs.

I also think any Hubble rescue should be spun off and funded through a worldwide fundraising effort. That’s when you get things like schoolkids in Libya collecting pennies to help save the Hubble. I have no doubt the fundage could be raised from a worldwide capital base, and the scope of interest would be far wider than any other recent space mission.

No, that would make no sense. The reason is that these missions do not generate profit. Nobody is going to want to run them at a loss for no reason. The only possible reason to take them over would be to turn around and sell the data to scientists. But of course many of the scientists already work for the government, or get funding from the government in some way (grants, etc.). So then all that happens is that you funnel the government money through a middle-man.

Also, keep in mind that these spacecraft are unique, with special handling requirements. They often require use of the Deep Space Network and things like that. If a “private” entity is going to run them, then they will essentially need the government’s assets and personnel. So, does the “private” entity then rent DSN time? Does it rent government employees? And where does it get the money?

The day my father dies, the first thing I am doing is cancelling his subscription to the Roanoke Times. If I were to wipe my butt on a piece of paper, it would be of equal journalistic quality. It is a good firestarter however.

It is indeed a pleasure to burn.