What Robotic Space Exploration Program should NASA Concentrate On?

[fredinno]

Scenario: NASA gets 1 Billion Dollars of money every five years (or $200 Million per year)to spend on any of the 3 planetary exploration programs (it might be realistic). NASA currently has 3 of these programs: Discovery ($450 Million cost cap), New Frontiers ($1 Billion Dollar cost cap), and Flagship (generally $2 Billion per mission). 

 

Which one would you fund? (Or would you make a new planetary exploration program, with a specific goal? [Remember that such new program would need approval by the gov't, and would need a specific goal, like test technologies (New Millemium), or explore Mars (Mars Scout).]

 

Discovery Program:

-$450 Million cost cap per mission, used for smaller, more focused missions.

-Generally limited to the inner solar system + the Asteroid Belt (due to practicality, and potential budget overruns)

-Examples of potential future missions include: NEO Scout, VERITAS, and Phyche.

-Using the obtained money, can fund 1-2 extra missions every 3-4 years (current rate of missions, however, mission pace expected to increase, within the coming years, with either 2 future missions being selected this time around, or the next call for missions being in 2017)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Program

 

New Frontiers Program:

-$1 Billion cost cap per mission, used for medium-class, missions.

-Able to go anywhere in the Solar System.

-Examples of potential future missions include: Lunar Surface Polar Sample Return, Comet Nucleus Sample Return, and Venus In-Situ Explorer.

-Using the obtained money, can fund 1 extra missions every 5 years (however, New Frontiers has been only sporatically putting out calls for mission proposals, so spending the money here will be more like fully funding this program- with a little extra left over)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Frontiers_program

 

Flagship Program:

-Generally $2 Billion in cost, used for high-cost missions designed to get as much data as possible from a single location.

-Able to go anywhere in the Solar System, with more designed to go to the Outer Solar System.

-Examples of Current Missions include: Solar Probe Plus, Curiosity.

-Examples of Planned Future Missions include: Mars 2020, Europa Clipper

-Using the obtained money, could accelerate existing flagship missions planned (Mars 2020, Europa Clipper) or use the money on preliminary work and instrument funding for Uranus Orbiter, for launch after Europa Clipper, once the money is freed up from the current flagship missions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship_Program

Edited December 18, 2015 by fredinno

[fredinno]

Noone?

[RainDreamer]

I would love to see more mars programs. There will be a lot of preparation needed to get people there.