13 years of research at $40m/year only produced 2 cancelled projects, says oversight arm

The NASA OIG's report [PDF] reviews NASA's Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) program, which began in 2010 with the goal of developing next-generation power systems for spacecraft. Despite an average yearly investment of nearly $40 million, "NASA has not produced a viable new RPS technology since the Program began," the OIG says in its report.

The OIG's assessment of the program doesn't get much better from there.
According to the report, the org "lacks a clear resource allocation strategy" to ensure its projects are actualized. Along with that, the program makes "optimistic assumptions about the maturity" of its technology, leading to two projects ultimately being canceled.

Those two technologies – the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) and the Enhanced Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (eMMRTG) - faced various issues. In the ASRG's case, it was in development well before the RPS program kicked off, but was canceled in 2013 because of a technical setback, coupled with "underestimation of cost and schedule."


Full article at The Register - https://www.theregister.com/2023/03..._power_program/

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NASA is just another federal bureaucracy more interested in keeping and expanding its empire than doing its job. If they keep failing they can always blame lack of funding and demand mroe money and personnel.

But I would bet that everyone's DIE statements are up to date and the muslim outreach is going well........

Adding to that is an article I read a few days ago about how all of the many space hardware startups have led to a HUGE technical talent shortage. For example, Blue Origin alone is over 2,000 short, mainly due to their New Glenn and BE-4 projects, not their I don't give a **** about sub-sub-orbital millionaire and "celebrity" joy rid machine.

I suspect that the bloat at legacy aerospace companies due to their former reliance upon juicy fedgov contracts combined with the likely preference of the best new talent for the innovative, out-of-the-box space hardware startups can explain the SLS and Starliner fiascos as well as Orion.

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The other day I sat next to a woman who has a profound fear of flying. I wanted to comfort her, so I said, "Don't worry, we're not gonna' crash. Statistically, we got a better chance of being bitten by a shark." Then I showed her the scar on my elbow from a shark attack. I said, "I got this when my plane went down off of Florida." - Dennis Regan

https://behindtheblack.com/behind-t...nasa-goes-woke/