Sigh! Two sad topics to discuss today, one that I will post on Comestible Zone; the other here.

NASA/JPL and NASA/JHUAPL have accomplished many stunning achievements with deep-space robotic craft over the past 50 years... The Mariners, Surveyors, Vikings, Voyagers, Magellan, Galileo, Cassini, the MER's, etc.

But the latest cutbacks in NASA's budget means that JPL and JHUAPL deepspace flagship missions are a thing of the past. Forget a Mars Sample Return Mission... Forget a Europa lander... Forget a Titan Balloon or Titan Boat mission.

This generation of engineers and technicians working for JPL and JHUAPL may soon be pink-slipped out of existance.,