What would be the estimated cost for building a research rover to Mars? How far is the craft in its development stages?
Well, from year to year it varies, but the Mars Technology Program at JPL engages in research and development related to Mars rover missions with a budget on the order of tens of millions of dollars per year, although the actual amount can vary significantly from year to year, depending on the prioritization that is given to the Mars program and NASA by Congress. The Mars Exploration Rovers that are launching in June represent a 60 million dollar program that spanned about 3 years in development. These rovers are scheduled to land on Mars (at Meridiani and Gusev) in January and Feburary of 2004. You can see a whole story, week by week, of how the progress of these rovers has been going at the Athena science website: http://athena.cornell.edu Expert: Mark Powell Member of the Technical Staff Telerobotics Research and Applications Group Jet Propulsion Laboratory Question: How long do it take to make the Mars Exploration Rovers? Answer: Wow… it seems like it’s been a really long time! W
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