NASA Budget Cuts Put Futures of Mars Rovers in Doubt

Boston (dbTechno) - NASA Headquarters has announced that they are taking a 40% or $4 million financial cut in the Mars Exploration Rover program. This is the group responsible for controlling the Spirit and Opportunity robots on Mars.

This is some bad news for the two rovers as it means that they will likely not be able to afford to keep them up and running on the minimal budget.

The two rovers have been on Mars since January 2004. The initial mission plan was for 90-days, but they just keep on going.

The Mars rovers cost $20 million per year to run in total.

It is more than likely going to be one of the two robots that has to shut down on Mars, with the Spirit being the more likely of the two.

It is also suspected that the workload for Opportunity will also be cut back quite a bit.

Many are in an uproar over this as there is nothing wrong with either of the rovers, as they have been sending back an incredible amount of information about the planet.

There is no word if the funding will or will not return over time.

NASA is trying to cut costs though as they prepare to land a Hummer-sized robot on Mars next year.