NASA boss balks at billion-dollar estimate for recycled Moon rover
Turning two Mars testbeds into one lunar explorer may prove anything but cheap
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has stated "we simply will not fly it" if claims about the costs of the repurposed Mars rover engineering model prove anywhere near accurate.
Isaacman was responding to the Planetary Society's chief of space policy, Casey Dreier, who had run the numbers on his plan to send a robot to the Moon, built from parts of engineering models of the successful Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity.
Dreier estimated that the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration (PROMISE) mission, as discussed by Isaacman in a June presentation, would cost between $723 million and $1.33 billion.
Dreier's figures include a low-end launch and landing cost of $234 million and a high-end estimate of $320 million.
PROMISE is intended to put a rover on the Moon for a fraction of the usual cost....
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