[X] My Assistant

[Drkskywxlt]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/29scout/

I hadn't heard this elsewhere and a quick google of "mars scout cancellation" pulled up nothing about this. The article quotes an interview with Doug McCuiston, so it sounds legit. Apparently, since Mars is now included in Discovery proposals, they feel that covers the low-priced Mars missions adequately. They also feel that no high-quality science can be garnered from such small missions going forward. As a Mars atmosphere guy, I beg to differ on that...

I doubt Mars missions are going to fare well in Discovery proposal reviews since Mars gets it's own budget and areas like small body, inner solar system, and perhaps even the outer solar system get such infrequent missions by comparison.

[djellison]

"The fact that the Mars program already gets billions of dollars per year" you say.

As a Mars researcher, you should know that to be entirely false. It's between $500 and 600M per year. A factor of at least 4 less than 'billions'.

The fact is this - the budget can't afford the scout program any more. If there's some exceptional science to be done within that budget, it can fight with other missions. If it can't beat those missions to the cash, then so be it.