MSL "Heat shield woes" Options

[Stu]

"MSL Heat Shield Woes" - Aviation Week

Anyone else see this?

[elakdawalla]

One of the things that makes me a bit worried is that the Mars program might wind up eating other programs. For instance, Alan pointed out that priority given to Phoenix' launch imposed a $40 million charge to the Discovery program because of the delay of the Dawn launch, and he also brought up the possibility of opening up the New Frontiers line to Mars missions. The next New Frontiers mission will have to be inner solar system, no further out than Jupiter, because there's not enough plutonium left (he said) for anything in the outer solar system -- it'll have to be solar powered. There's already seven spacecraft scheduled to go to the Moon. That leaves small bodies and Venus in the original New Frontiers manifest. If they open it up to Mars, I wonder if that means New Frontiers will necessarily wind up at Mars because the risk of such a mission would definitely be lower than for a Venus mission.

--Emily