Mars rovers survive cuts in budget

Last update: March 25, 2008 - 8:29 PM

NASA rescinded a directive Tuesday that would have forced millions of dollars in cuts from the popular Mars rover program, saying the budget reductions had not been cleared with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

James Green, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division, last week sent a private communication to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ordering $16 million in cuts to the Mars program, including $4 million in rover operations this year. If those cuts had been implemented, they would have required that at least one of the rovers be put in a state of hibernation.

The letter said the cuts were necessary to offset cost overruns in the Mars Science Laboratory mission, scheduled to launch in 2009. The MSL is a much bigger rover than either of the currents ones, Spirit or Opportunity, and packed with sophisticated instruments to be used to determine the habitability of the planet.

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