Two caveats: This study assumed a larger, much-more-capable 2020-class rover, capable of self-navigation, machine vision and onboard planning. The Pathfinder mission was capped at $150M development costs in 1992 dollars... that would be ~220M now, and it didn't include another $120M for the launcher (a Delta II). Or operations costs after launch... plus a bigger, smarter rover would cost more to develop. To do Pathfinder today would cost about $400M, including the launcher and ground operations. A more-capable rover mission would be somewhere around $550-700M total cost.
And the comparison is against one human in the field... actual expeditions would probably send a crew of five, of which three might go out at once.
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Date: 2003-02-13 10:56 pm (UTC)And the comparison is against one human in the field... actual expeditions would probably send a crew of five, of which three might go out at once.