The Price Of Exploration

摘要

Nasa is in the final throes of implementing the most powerful surface recon-naissance mission ever undertaken to Mars. Dubbed the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), it represents NASA's first life inference mission equipped with instruments capable of detecting the chemical building blocks of life more than an order of magnitude more sensitive than those used by the Viking mission of the 1970s. MSL will also demonstrate multiple technical capabilities needed to enable a future robotic Mars sample return mission.rnIn his 31 October Letter ("Viewing NASA's Mars budget with resignation," p. 672), former NASA Associate Administrator S. A. Stern suggested that excessive cost growth of MSL is deeply damaging NASA's overall planetary exploration agenda and destroying the opportunity for a future Mars sample return mission. He blames senior NASA leaders for disband-rning his MSL independent technical review team, which he claims forced his resignation.