NASA is fine with cute robots on Mars but if there is anything that fiascoes like the Constellation program and the James Webb Space Telescope have taught us, it's that NASA is not all that competent with big plans.

Projects that were once mission critical are now instead founded on the concept that there is zero tolerance for risk. 

If we are really going to venture into the Final Frontier, the private sector is going to do it. But why would they? Does UPS want a big contract from NASA to do shipping? Are there enough rich tourists to fund vacations? What is the economy of scale on mining asteroids? 

The Drudge Report is saying that "Cosmos" ratings are a disaster and, I as I discussed in Is "Cosmos" Suffering From Unrealistic Expectations? the overnights showed numbers down from the premiere, but that is hardly a disaster.



1) It's a science show. That a science show was on a prime time broadcast network - and took third place in its premiere - I would say is bordering on miraculous.

BICEP, the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization, is an experiment that used almost 100 detectors to scan the sky at microwave frequencies ( 100 GHz and 150 GHz, angular resolutions of 1.0° and 0.7°) in order to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).