Launch Date Name Result Reason
1964 Mariner 3 US (flyby) Failure Shroud failed to jettison
1964 Mariner 4 US (flyby) Success Returned 21 images
1969 Mariner 6 US (flyby) Success Returned 75 images
1969 Mariner 7 US (flyby) Success Returned 126 images
1971 Mariner 8 US Failure Launch failure
1971 Mariner 9 US Success Returned 7,329 images
Total cost of all Mariner missions was approximately $554 million.
1975 Viking 1 Orbiter/Lander US Success Located landing site for Lander and first successful landing on Mars
1975 Viking 2 Orbiter/Lander US Success Returned 16,000 images and extensive atmospheric data and soil experiments.
Total cost of both Viking missions was roughly one billion dollars.
1992 Mars Observer US Failure Lost prior to Mars arrival
The total cost of the Mars Observer mission including development, construction, launch, and ground support is estimated at $813 million.
1996 Mars Global Surveyor US Success More images than all Mars Missions
Total cost: $319 million including Development, construction and
Launch
5 years of operations
1996 Mars Pathfinder US Success Technology experiment lasting 5 times longer than warranty.
Total cost $280 million, including the launch vehicle and mission operations.
1998 Mars Climate Orbiter US Failure Lost on arrival
Project Cost
$327.6 million total for both orbiter and lander (not including Deep Space 2). $193.1 million for spacecraft development, $91.7 million for launch, and $42.8 million for mission operations.
1999 Mars Polar Lander US Failure Lost on arrival
total $120 million. (not including launch vehicle)
1999 Deep Space 2 Probes (2) US Failure Lost on arrival (carried on Mars Polar Lander)
The total cost of development of the Deep Space 2 probes was $29.2 million.
2001 Mars Odyssey US Success High resolution images of Mars
Total cost: About $300 million
2003 Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit US Success Over 70,000 images lasting 8 times longer than warranty
2003 Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity US Success Over 58,000 images lasting 8 times longer than warranty
Total cost: Approximately $820 million total, consisting approximately of $645 million spacecraft development and science instruments; $100 million launch; $75 million mission operations and science processing
2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter US TBD
The total cost of the spacecraft was $720 million
If my addition is correct forgive me if I got lost in all those zero's I believe the total cost of US Mars Explorations from 1964 to 2005 is $4,292,000,000,000. Thats 4 trillion 292 million dollars for some very nice pictures space debris floating around in space and some Mars rocks. Is it worth it?
2007-06-20
13:20:29
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15 answers
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asked by
Enigma
6
in
Politics