NASA U-Turn Over Mars Rover Funding

Written by Ian O'Neill

No sooner had news hit the web that NASA had cut funding to the Mars Exploratory Rovers (MER), NASA took a huge U-turn and voided the letter that was sent to MER mission scientists. Apparently both Spirit and Opportunity can continue to roll around the Mars landscape as if nothing had ever happened; in fact the two robots will probably be unaware of the drama that unfolded here on Earth in the last 24 hours. Talk about a storm in a teacup…

But what caused the change of heart? What was behind all this funding craziness? Unfortunately, this ordeal highlights the pressures government-funded space agencies are under, and it is unlikely this will be the end of it…

You could almost hear the news sites and blogs rumble to life last night as the news surged through the web about NASA needing to cut $4 million from the MER program. Reports flooded in that the rover scientists were shocked and saddened by this surprise turn of events, the whole world seemed to react. Every other story on Digg.com showed a new article about the budget cut, and looking through the comments, most reactions were of shear disgust about the short-sightedness of the government funded space agency. After all, Spirit and Opportunity represent the most successful robotic planetary mission ever; to simply switch one of them off seemed like a crime. Rushing to the keyboard I posted my five cents worth on the Universe Today, thinking to myself "this is insane", but wondering why it was happening.

Spirit and Opportunity landed on the Red Planet in 2004 and were only expected to live for a few months. The previous successful rover, Sojourner (of NASA's Pathfinder mission in 1997), was expected to last for a couple of weeks, it survived for three months. So expectations were high for the MER program. Not only did the 2004 mission surpass the few months the rovers were designed for, they have both independently survived the last four years and the science they are carrying out has surpassed even the most extreme predictions. Every day we read about new discoveries coming from our intrepid explorers on Mars, they have been embraced by the international community, and they are as popular as ever.

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