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Chase Million @millionconcepts.com · 01/09/2026

"On budget," that means there is a budget. We still does not know what it is, nor what funding it is coming out of. Nobody asked for this mission. It does not achieve any strategic objectives. It will not do meaningful science. It is likely to do substantial harm to the Mars exploration program.

Quote:

“We have been hard at work now for a couple of months,” Pomerantz said. “We are once again on time and on budget, those magical words that I have not gotten to say that many times previously in my aerospace career, but I’ve gotten to say about every single Mars helicopter project that we’ve done here at AV.”

Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG)
Risk to MEP Current and Future Missions from SkyFall
• Since the MEPAG meeting, NASA has announced that the SkyFall payload on the SR-1 mission will be
managed and funded out of the MEP, under the MEP future missions budget line.
• SkyFall is an uncompeted payload that is not identified as a priority in the Decadal Survey or Mars
Future Plan. No community input has been solicited on SkyFall science objectives.
• Due to assignment of SkyFall to the MEP budget, plans for instrument maturation programs (e.g.,
PRIMER) to benefit future low-cost and commercial missions have been indefinitely delayed.
• Extreme schedule and budget pressure to launch SkyFall in 2028 puts NASA at risk of developing no
other new Mars missions in coming years, and also puts other MEP activities at risk, including active
missions like Mars 2020, MSL, MRO, and Mars Odyssey.
• Finding: In the strongest possible terms, MEPAG encourages NASA to continue supporting the MEP
program of record and the Mars Future Plan in parallel with SkyFall to ensure progress on Decadal
Survey science, preserve science and engineering workforce capabilities, and build on the past
success of the MEP. This includes the continuation of functioning extended missions, which provide
substantial return (see slide 8), and soliciting community input on SkyFall science objectives.

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social

Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...

arstechnica.com

Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program

NASA's cost estimate for SR-1 Freedom is $2.1 billion, but that doesn't include the helicopters.

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