Annoyed and Amused at Red Robin

[elfs]

Recently, when we took the kids out to their restaurant of choice, Red Robin, their placemats had a "space science" theme to them. Which I thought was kinda cool, but as I read them I came across this "factoid": "The Mars Rovers travelled 64 million miles and cost an out-of-this-world 820 million dollars."

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "out of this world." Consider that both Pathfinder and the failed Beagle 2 missions cost $200 million. For $600 million, NASA built Spirit, which is four times larger than its predecessors, and given that they were manfacturing one, for an additional $200 million they bought Opportunity. So for a four-fold increase in cost, NASA bought an estimated eight-fold increase in functionality and delivery weight, as well as doubling their chances of a successful landing. Beagle 2 died on impact. Pathfinder lasted three weeks. Spirit and Opportunity are still delivering photos and science two years after their landings.

Sounds like they were a bargain to me. For another "out of this world" price, remember that The Lord of the Rings (the movie) cost $400 million, and wasn't half as interesting.

On the other hand, I was highly entertained by a pyramid-shaped cardboard advertisement on the table. Being a curious monkey, I picked it up and looked underneath. On the bottom it read, "This is for everyone who didn't get a pony as a child. It's okay. Ponies are really hard to care for and they don't appreciate it very much."

Comments

[genericjoe.livejournal.com]

I sometimes think my lovers and I make a monthly or bi-monthly trek to Red Robin just to see what the new thing under the cube (it's normally cube-shaped) is. I think last summer they had one that was shaped like an outdoor grill (with advertisements for barbeque sandwiches) and the bottom read something like "Good thing this wasn't a real grill, you'd have dumped ashes on your lap!"