# Why is NASA so inept compared to ESA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nasa-so-inept-compared-to-esa/284737 "2005-01-14T17:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nasa-so-inept-compared-to-esa/284737/21 "2005-01-15T23:02:07Z")
Like **Finagle** said; space exploration is difficult. When things go wrong on a spacecraft or probe, it’s so very easy for them to go completely wrong, due largely to the harsh environment that the equipment has to endure It’s possible to engineer probes to be more durable (bigger, stronger, components) or reliable (more redundant systems) but typically this means that weight-for-weight, they are less _functional_ (if they work at all, of course) - the more payload weight you squander on making the thing solid, the less you have left to cram the actual _science stuff_ into. So a break-even situation must be reached; it might be decided, for example, that launching three relatively cheap and flimsy probes, each with only 75% probability of success (as far as it is predictable anyway) is preferrable to launching a single, expensive, chunky one with 95% probaility of success, but only the capacity to do half the experimental science that each of the three cheaper ones could do. It’s different when there is a human crew, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nasa-so-inept-compared-to-esa/284737/22 "2005-01-15T23:03:08Z")
What I was getting around to saying is that _luck_ is actually quite a significant factor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nasa-so-inept-compared-to-esa/284737.md?page=1)