Halliburton contract on Mars

Well, what did you expect?

And from an email my friend Jody sent yesterday, this excerpt from somewhere (sorry, I've lost the source, if I had it):

(Jan. 10): The following was reported in the news:

PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The U.S. robotic rover on Mars has suffered some minor technical problems that will delay by three days its planned landing pad roll-off to search for signs of water in an arid rock-strewn crater, officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Wednesday.

Yes, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the "technical problems" of the otherwise flawless Spirit mission just happen to let the exciting event - the launching of of the rover - coincide closely with Bush's official announcement of plans to send man to the Moon and Mars next Wednesday...

Update 2:17 pm : Billmon comments:

Halliburton and Baker-Hughes are working on some very advanced systems, Briggs said, some so advanced they aren’t willing to talk much about them. He said the NASA Ames Center relies on working with people in the industry who "really understand the problems and make us face up to the realities" …

One can already imagine the cost overruns required to handle those "realities." Imagine it: a drilling project on Mars -- roughly 300 million miles away from the Defense Contract Audit Agency. Using proprietary technology so secret the customer can't be told what it is or how it works. Under the harshest and most difficult conditions imaginable. And with a $1 trillion budget to hide it in.

I mean, Halliburton's current annual earnings probably wouldn't equal a rounding error in a budget like that.