Are Future Mars Plans on a Slippery Slope?
January 8, 2008 On December 21, the day after the U.S. Congress recessed for three weeks, NASA announced the delay of the 2011 Mars Scout selection due to a potential conflict of interest with a member of the review panel. NASA officials were advised to start the proposal process over to avoid a long, contentious process of protest. The extended selection process means the launch will slip to 2013. Congress has demonstrated strong support for robotic Mars exploration, and in fact, just one day earlier, Congress reasserted its view that Mars missions should be launched at every Mars opportunity — approximately every two years. Now, we are going to miss the 2011 opportunity altogether. While I’m disappointed to lose a launch opportunity, my major concern is how this slip will affect the 2013 orbiter and the following decade of planned missions: Will all future Mars missions slip? Since President Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) in 2004, the Administration has made f
