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The ISS budget for 2012 appears to be just under $3 billion. This could fund quite a few robotic missions.
by absconditus 15y ago
The ISS budget for 2012 appears to be just under $3 billion. This could fund quite a few robotic missions.
- burgerbrain 15y agoIf you can squeeze that kind of inspiration and international cooperation out of a bunch of robotic missions, then great. Edit: Then again, this is what Cassini cost: "Cost of mission: $1.422 billion pre-launch development; $710 million mission operations; $54 million tracking; $422 million launch vehicle; $500 million ESA; $160 million ASI; total about $3.27 billion, of which U.S. contribution is $2.6 billion and European partners' contribution $660 million" http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/quickfacts/ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/quickfacts/ So you could get just less than one funded Cassini a year for what we spend on the ISS. You would still need to find additional funding.