Planetary exploration report sets funding sights on Mars

Science Fair: Planetary exploration report sets funding sights on Mars

Planetary scientists called for Mars exploration as a top priority, budget woes permitting, followed by a visit to Jupiter's moon, Europa, in a survey of the next decade's most promising space missions.

The National Research Council's "Visions and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022," report calls for the multi-billion dollar flagship missions that would "provide a steady stream of important new discoveries about the solar system," according to a statement. Such decadal surveys, made with review by expert panels and independent cost estimates of missions, are the way astronomy as a discipline calls for new spacecraft. Noting budget shortfalls at NASA, the survey contains back-up recommendations for planetary exploration missions.

And that may be the best case. "The U.S. Administration and Congress are not providing the once-promised support for space exploration," says The Planetary Society in a statement commenting on the survey. "The budget assumed by the decadal survey will not be provided."

With full funding of NASA, the report calls for three large missions :

Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher (MAX-C) -- "a mission to Mars that could help determine whether the planet ever supported life," should be the top priority if NASA can keep its cost to $2.5 billion, about $1 billion less than the report panel's estimate.
Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO)-- an explorer of Jupiter's ice-crusted Europa, estimated at $4.7 billion.
Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission "to investigate that planet's interior structure, atmosphere, and composition" started by 2022 for $2.7 billion.
In the case that the space agency doesn't see its exploration budget increased, the panel suggests NASA fund two smaller missions to planets, eschewing the more expensive Mars lander and Europa orbiter.

"In these tough economic times, some difficult choices may have to be made. With that in mind, our priority missions were carefully selected based on their potential to yield the most scientific benefit per dollar spent," said astronomer Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the chair of the committee that wrote the report, in a statement.