NASA’s planetary science program is in trouble. Last month NASA administrator Bill Nelson testified to Congress that the space agency’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission urgently needs a quarter-billion-dollar infusion of extra cash—and that even more budget busting may be on the horizon. That’s disturbing news, given the decades-long trend of NASA’s top-priority missions ballooning in cost and wreaking havoc elsewhere in the space agency’s science budget. Already MSR’s “too big to fail” status is impacting other NASA projects, and rumors are flying that more severe effects still lie in store. Seeing this all-too-familiar situation unfolding yet again, some space scientists are raising the alarm in hopes of somehow shoring up vulnerable missions against the coming storm.
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