Can Rocket Lab come to NASA's rescue with new Mars sample-return plan?

Jan 28, 2023
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Wow. Just SpaceX have possibilities to deliver modern laboratory on Mars surface, before NASA return examples from there.
 
Oct 10, 2024
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Wow. Just SpaceX have possibilities to deliver modern laboratory on Mars surface, before NASA return examples from there.
SpaceX has no experience conducting robotic spacecraft operations on Mars. And if you believe everything Elon Musk is saying these days, you don’t know much about Mars either.
 
This article says "NASA's Mars sample-return plans have spiraled from $7 billion to $11 billion,"

Meanwhile, other proposed new "domestic programs" cost far more. For instance. the student loan forgiveness proposals are estimated to cost the government between $870 billion and $1.4 trillion.

So, this is a matter of priorities, not fiscal possibility.

Neither of these programs can be done without the Federal Government having to "borrow" the money to do them - actually increasing the U.S. national debt and the interest payments that the Federal Government will need to pay in future years - take away from our ability to fund other projects in our future.
 
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Oct 10, 2024
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NASA consumes a tiny fraction of our national budget, and it has consistently accomplished more per dollar than just about anything else we do. This, in spite of the fact that it is routinely trying to do things that have never been done before to advance our knowledge of how our planet and the cosmos around us work, knowledge that may one day save us from destroying ourselves. It’s money well spent.
 

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