Although the last decade has seen a renaissance in the exploration of Mars, the future is about as clear as one of the Red Planet’s frequent dust storms, Jeff Foust says over at The Space Review.
“The next NASA mission after MSL [Mars Science Laboratory] won’t launch until 2013, and the future after that is even murkier. NASA is also planning to shift funds from Mars research to other areas of its science programs, including other planetary missions, much to the consternation of researchers who have spent years or decades studying the Red Planet. With no firm date for human exploration of Mars—only a passing reference to it in the national space exploration policy—some are left to wonder whether the current golden age of Mars exploration is coming to an end,” Foust writes.
