[andyzweb]

Was that the budget for the whole thing? If that’s what it cost to put that thing up there why aren’t we doing this once a month.

[divbzero]

… or at least once every 26 months or so. [1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_win...

We sent 3 separate spacecraft to Mars during the most recent launch window. We’ll see how we do next time around.

[nier]

NASA’s budget is not what it used to be during the cold war and specifically during the race to the moon. The budget for 2020 was $22.6 billion.

Source: https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget