Inquiring readers want to know
You ask, we look it up: an astute reader wonders how the Earth Rover expedition compares in cost with the Mars Rover program or the proposed humanned missions to the moon and Mars.
The proposed Moon/Mars expedition may have to be via balloon, as so far it appears to be full of hot air. When the first President Bush proposed going to Mars back in 1989, the cost was estimated at $400 billion. So far the second President Bush is reportedly proposing giving NASA an additional $1 billion over five years, plus $11 billion in "revisions to the space agency's projects," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. At least one NASA expert is reported to have estimated that a trip to Mars would cost at least $170 billion.
The Mars Rover project, meanwhile, cost a mere $820 million, and that's for two rovers, or $410 million per rover.
Our Earth Rover mission cost even less: The Olympus C-700 camera was the biggest expense at around $500, depending on where you buy one, but that's already been used for hundreds of expeditions and can be reused many, many more times. Same goes for the USB cable to connect the camera to the computer ($8). I don't remember what the computer cost, but you can get a better one much cheaper now. Other gear included rubber snow boots imported from the Czech Republic at a cost of about $10 -- the boots are almost 10 years old, so that's working out to about $1 per year so far, or 50 cents per year per boot. The down jacket was about $80, and the gloves were under $10.
Meanwhile, the U.S. deficit is expected to break all records this year at more than $521 billion.
(Coincidentally, the deficit is the subject of the ad that CBS won't air during the Super Bowl.)
So according to our analysis, we can afford a walk around the neighborhood, and we're lucky to have the Mars Rovers sending snapshots, but it's going to be awhile before we can pay for any more ambitious expeditions.
posted by Janet Dagley Dagley @6:24 PM
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30.1.04  |
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