There's a big difference between moon rovers and mars rovers. Moon rovers
don't have to be autonomous - they can be driven directly from Earth.
Communications is also much easier, and there is far more sunlight for solar
panels.

Landing on the moon is easier, too. Low gravity and no atmosphere makes the
whole thing much more controllable. And we don't need the whole
parachute-airbag-retro rocket-petal landing system - just a retro rocket
pack.

How much of the Mars rover budgets are tied up in the deep space network
costs, I wonder? Jodrell bank also spends a lot of time talking to Mars.

The Moon should be much cheaper.

In fact, there's a private moon shot planned for the near future, that is
going to put an impactor on the moon.
"jimmydevice" wrote in message
...
Why is NASA giving such small consideration to the mars landers?
The MER 2 press conference was cut short to show yet another grocery
delivery to ISS. Does anyone, excluding scientists performing yet
another life science experiment, care? I get the feeling that NASA
is trying to minimize MER for unknown reasons. Any answers?
Jim Davis.