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Extra Bang, Same Buck
It's great to see NASA having some missions with "follow-on" effects. The most famous, of course, is the Mars rovers, which like the energizer bunny, just keep chugging along. But there are other "bonus" missions from NASA too.
For instance, the Deep Impact mission, which intercepted a comet earlier this month, may continue on to observe another comet -- all at very little extra cost. Leonard David has ran some great stories about NASA follow-on missions. I remember Leonard had one story about how lunar and Martian exploration would also be a boon for astronomers.
It's a sign of a good project that the costs are low, the mission is a success, and there are "freebies" at the end. Too many times, in my opinion, NASA has engineered it's way out of politically workable missions. I'm glad to see them making some wins as well.
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