Why Curiosity Cost $2.5 Billion

What’s 10 toes lengthy, 9 toes extensive, seven toes tall, and weighs 2,000 kilos? NASA’s Mars Curiosity. The rover was launched on Nov. 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral and efficiently landed on the Pink Planet’s Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012. With a price ticket of $2.5 billion, there’s been a whole lot of criticism and skepticism about Curiosity, with the media and public questioning why it value a lot and whether or not the cash was properly spent. This text seems to be on the mission and the prices surrounding this a part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

The Mission

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is a part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program which goals to discover what NASA calls probably the most accessible planet. Based on the mission’s webpage, Mars is a novel planet as a result of it has an environment and local weather, however its geology can also be very complicated—identical to Earth. Curiosity’s project is to “examine whether or not situations have been favorable for microbial life and for preserving clues within the rocks about attainable previous life.”

The rover traveled silently via area for greater than 350 million miles—a visit that took over eight months—earlier than reaching the Martian ambiance. This marked the entry, descent, and touchdown (EDL) section of the mission. This section, dubbed “seven minutes of terror,” was a guided entry. Its descent was each parachuted and powered, with a sky crane bringing the rover to a delicate touchdown on the floor.

Curiosity makes use of its superior payload of scientific gear to gather and analyze rock and soil samples to find out if situations are favorable for microbial life on the planet. The rover sends Earth high-resolution pictures and video utilizing radio relays by way of current Mars orbiters and NASA’s Deep House Community of antennas right here on Earth, albeit with some delay because the sign will journey a median of 48.75 million miles.

The mission was initially alleged to final solely two years. However NASA prolonged it for an indefinite time period in December 2012.

The Prices

It is tough to listen to or examine Curiosity with out mentioning its price ticket. Whereas $2.5 billion isn’t a small chunk of change, it is necessary to think about that NASA unfold the prices of the Curiosity mission over a time period whereas it explores Mars. The finances covers a wide range of bills, together with the rocket used to launch the spacecraft—a two-stage Atlas V-541 launch automobile supplied by United Launch Alliance, a three way partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, accounting for about 20% of the prices—and salaries for a workforce of extremely expert engineers, programmers, managers, scientists, and impartial contractors from round 20 states within the U.S., in addition to Canada, Denmark, and the U.Okay.

The $2.5 billion averages out to about $312 million per yr—or one greenback for each particular person within the U.S.—between 2012 and 2020. Simply to set as a comparability, Individuals spent virtually $96 billion on pets in 2019. That is about $290 per particular person. This comparability doesn’t indicate that we should not spend cash on our pets however serves for example how little cash has been spent on the Curiosity mission.

Is It Cash Properly Spent?

Although we do not have the expertise but to journey at warp pace just like the fictional Starship Enterprise, a few of our most necessary technological developments have been the results of U.S. area exploration. In his 2012 e-book “House Chronicles,” astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson lists a number of applied sciences that may be attributed to area exploration, together with (however not restricted to) kidney dialysis machines, plane collision-avoidance techniques, LASIK eye surgical procedure, GPS, hydroponic techniques for rising crops, digital imaging, cordless energy instruments, and athletic sneakers.

Technological development is a main supply of financial development. House exploration and expertise proceed to be utilized in varied financial sectors for non-space functions. NASA states: “The ancillary advantages of the area program (are) its means to stimulate the economic system; its functions to the options of earthbound issues; its contributions to worldwide cooperation; and its creation of tens of 1000’s of jobs for our extremely expert scientists, engineers, and technicians.”

The Backside Line

Wanting on the numbers, each particular person within the U.S. spent about $8 whole—lower than it prices to go see a film—to get a complicated scientific spacecraft safely to Mars. Certain, area journey fulfills our innate have to discover and to assist perceive our place within the Universe. Nevertheless, the ancillary advantages of the area program, and the 1000’s of technological advances which have been funded and found due to it, additionally must be thought-about when deciding if missions like Curiosity are clever expenditures.