spacetoday.net: special section: Mars

Report: administration to cut planetary science funding

Posted: Fri, Feb 10 6:31 AM ET (1131 GMT)
NASA

The Obama Administration's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal will include a 20-percent cut in NASA's planetary science program, likely killing planned cooperation with Europe on Mars exploration. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the 2013 budget proposal, scheduled for release on Monday, will cut NASA's planetary science program budget from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $1.2 billion in 2013, with additional cuts projected out to 2017. Those cuts are expected to spell the end of plans to work with ESA on a joint Mars exploration program that included a 2016 orbiter and 2018 lander and rover. The cuts are thought to be due at least in part to help cover the increased costs of the James Webb Space Telescope. At least two members of the House appropriations committee have said they would move to block those cuts when they take up the agency's budget later this year.

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Report: US-European cooperation in Mars exploration may end

Posted: Tue, Feb 7 6:13 AM ET (1113 GMT)
ExoMars orbiter (ESA)

Plans for the US and Europe to jointly carry out Mars missions is in danger of collapse because of a lack of NASA funding, the BBC reported Monday. The ExoMars program was to feature joint missions performed by NASA and ESA, including a US-launched European orbiter in 2016 and a joint NASA-ESA lander/rover mission in 2018. The BBC reported that NASA officials have alerted their European colleagues that NASA will likely withdraw from the program, most likely when the agency's 2013 budget proposal is released next week, because of a lack of funding. NASA had already indicated to ESA it would not be able to launch the 2016 orbiter, forcing ESA to contact the Russian space agency Roscosmos about a potential Proton launch of the spacecraft. NASA officials had no comment about its potential withdrawal from ExoMars.

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