Putting this episode together has been a bit of a wild ride and we actually delayed the episode for one week because I was hoping to see some of the stories on our list to cover come to some kind of a resolution.
But no… 5 extra days later, we’re still not sure how a lot of stories are going to turn out. Hubble’s budget is still slashed and we still don’t know how those cuts are going to be implemented. Chandra’s budget is trashed, and we’re still not sure if the mission team is being laid off. And it just goes on and on.
Instead of talking about the unresolved future of these missionsl, we’re going to explore exoplanets in our first segment before we take a deep dive into the story of the VIPER rover’s cancellation and touch on what we know about Hubble and Chandra and their budgets of sadness.
And speaking of budgets… Most years we do a massive fundraiser – our Hangout-a-thon – to raise money to make up the difference between what we earn through Patreon and what we need to pay our bills. This year’s event is going to be October 18-20. If you want to help it be a success, please join Patreon at patreon.com/CosmoQuestX. We’re also doing some gaming weekends prior to the HAT as we build enthusiasm. We’ll be posting details on Patreon and social media as dates approach.