The Mars rover Curiosity, in the clean room at JPL in La Canada Flintridge on Monday, April 4, 2011. The rover is expected to land on the Red Planet in August. (Tim Berger/Pasadena Sun)
By Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun
Pasadena Sun
Proposed cuts to next year’s NASA budget would drastically scale back the agency’s efforts to explore Mars, likely costing hundreds of Jet Propulsion Laboratory workers their jobs.
In the scope of a more than $17.7-billion proposed 2013 budget for the agency, the call for a $300-million reduction in planetary science funding appears relatively modest on paper but would hit JPL particularly hard.
The cuts eliminate two future joint U.S.-European Mars missions that would have been managed by JPL, eliminating positions for many of the scientists and engineers who built and launched NASA’s celebrated Mars rovers.
In the scope of a more than $17.7-billion proposed 2013 budget for the agency, the call for a $300-million reduction in planetary science funding appears relatively modest on paper but would hit JPL particularly hard.
The cuts eliminate two future joint U.S.-European Mars missions that would have been managed by JPL, eliminating positions for many of the scientists and engineers who built and launched NASA’s celebrated Mars rovers.
