Five years ago, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched its twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Odyssey. Since then, they've been taking a beating. An article published this week in the Columbus Dispatch reports on how the Mars rover project team has seen continual success despite being forced to do more with less, partially due to the resilience of the machines themselves.
"They're like that old Volvo or Honda in your driveway--they keep running and running," said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.
And it's a good thing, too.
Earlier this year, NASA proposed slashing US$4 million from the project's US$20 million annual operating budget--which would have meant putting the Spirit rover in "hibernation." But the rover team protested and the cuts to the US$800 million project didn't happen. But the team has seen some brutal cuts in staff numbers. In a five-year period, it has seen its ranks drop from 280 scientists and technicians to roughly 60.
Going lean means sometimes making do with what's on hand. "We're learning how to make things work for a long time on Mars," said Geoffrey Landis, a scientist at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and member of the rover science team. "The experience will help us make more capable rovers and eventually put people on Mars."
What would you do if stakeholders proposed cutting 20 percent of your budget for the year? Would you protest or absorb the cut? And have you been on a long-term project that has seen team size drop drastically?