Revamping the Mars Program: A Fresh Perspective

NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, with a projected cost of $10 billion, threatens to consume funding for other Mars exploration missions for the next 15 years. Aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin suggests an alternative program that could send 20 missions to Mars for the same cost, allowing for a wider range of exploration sites and instruments. He argues that a robust program would provide a greater scientific return and reduce mission risk compared to the MSR mission, which faces technical and programmatic challenges. Zubrin calls for a study comparing the two programs and urges Congress to demand transparency from NASA.