A series of lower cost NASA Mars missions could begin as soon as 2030.
NASA offered a partial answer to that question today. It envisions a series of lower cost Mars missions, costing up to $300 million, at every 2-year launch window. The program could begin as soon as 2030, said Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, in ato the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. “We’re at this inflection point,” Ianson said. “This is a good opportunity for the proposing community to get really creative.
For several years, planetary scientists have been investigating what cheaper missions to Mars might look like. In 2018, Mars Cube One, a pair of small spacecraft, flew along with the InSight lander, successfully relaying its signal to Earth as they flew past the planet. And the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, which landed with Perseverance, is about todrew nearly 400 attendees, with 39 missions proposed.
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