The impact of not having MGS around Options

[karolp]

I also think that MGS was a fine spacecraft and wish it was around for another Martian year or two. But I was wondering: in what way will our presence at Mars be different without MGS? Are there some capabilities which are not overlapping with MRO and Odyssey?

[MarkL]

If MGS is OOC, we've lost a high quality, reliable and proven instrument able to image surface features at 1.5m resolution. It's an incredibly valuable asset. Amateurs like us have lost the most as the public targeting program, an effort many of us have participated in, would be at an end. There's still a lot unseen on Mars and MOC is in a perfect position to turn up interesting features that would be missed altogether by HiRISE. It's a tangible loss, but with a sell-by date that has long since passed, we got out moneys worth.