Focusing MSL To Ensure Success

Mars Science Laboratory Project Changes Respond to Cost Increases, Keep Mars Program On Track

“Because the success of MSL is of course of high importance to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SMD, working with the MSL Project and Mars Program at JPL, concluded that the MSL project required some focused and prudent reductions in scope in order to better ensure project success. Furthermore, because all of the funds MSL requested were not available in the Mars Exploration Program reserves pool, and because SMD did not want to impact other current or future science missions to fund these new costs, the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters has been working closely with the MSL project and the science community to identify mission scope reductions to minimize the project’s need for funds, while minimizing both technical risk and impacts to the mission’s science return.”