Reaction to OIG Report on MSL

Mars Mission May Be In Jeopardy, NPR
“NASA’s inspector general issued a significant list Wednesday of items that need to be resolved before the next mission to Mars can be launched in November. Some say the challenges won’t be resolved in time, causing the Mars team to miss their launch window. That’s a problem because the next window for sending a craft to Mars isn’t for two years — and the cost of rejiggering the program to fit that window might be too high for NASA to stomach.”
Mars rover faces contamination issues, Nature
“Furthermore, the report notes concerns with the way that the rover’s plutonium-238 power supply has degraded in the two years since the rover’s launch was delayed from 2009 to the current window, between October and December of this year.”
Next Mars rover faces bumpy ride to launch, New Scientist
“Hundreds of unsolved problems could delay the launch of NASA’s ambitious new Mars rover by two years and add more than $500 million to its budget, according to a report from the agency’s inspector general. But NASA is downplaying the concerns, saying it is “very confident” that it will meet its intended launch window, which begins in November.”