Long-term planning (an unfortunate lack, thereof)

> Separate topic: forgot to mention that my suggested 20 robotic probes to
> NEOs might be able to visit 60 NEOs with appropriate planning, thus making
> this a really impactful exploration program; c.f., the Hera program
> http://www.uark.edu/misc/hera/. Imagine 60 NEOs characterized to the
> level of 433 Eros. Alternatively, 20 NEOs could be explored with, say, 7
> probes, thus lowering the cost of the exploration program to under $1
> billion.

One caveat on all this - a good portion of your costs are going to come
from continuing operations - the people on the ground who keep in touch
with the probes and keep them running and doing the right thing, and
sending the data to the right places, etc. The more you save money by
mass-manufacture of robotic probes to the same design, the higher the
fraction of your final costs are going to be eaten up in the mission
operations side of the budget. Unless we can come up with a
substantially cheaper way of doing continuing operations under the
conditions of having several dozen simultaneously active missions.
Probably mostly a process and "workflow" issue that could be handled by
some nice computer engineering than a real show-stopper, but it had
better not be forgotten or you'll be eating up your budget a lot faster
than you expect.

Arthur (apsmith@...