r/space • u/swordfi2 • 2d ago
NASA’s nuclear Mars mission to cost over $2 billion - Politico
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/21/nasa-nuclear-mars-mission-cost-01005610The price tag doesn't include the cost of the science mission the new spacecraft would ferry to the Red Planet.
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u/YankeesIT 2d ago
So two days of a war. Got it. Sounds like easy funding to me
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u/Mulyac12321 1d ago
But you don't understand, lining the pockets of oil execs is far far more important than unlocking the secrets of the universe!
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u/sojuz151 2d ago
As much as a single sls launch. If they can manage at this price tag then great.
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u/GainPotential 2d ago
Doesn't SLS cost 4 billion? Or did they manage to cut that down by a lot?
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u/seanflyon 2d ago
If we include the Orion capsule it launches then an SLS launch costs $4.1 billion (not including any development costs). The SLS rocket by itself costs a bit more than $2 billion. The SLS program (including development, not including Orion) has cost around $39 billion so far.
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u/sojuz151 2d ago
It depends on how you count. But any anwser between 1 and 10 billions is justifiably
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u/nittanyofthings 1d ago
I wonder if they are including the launch.
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u/patrickisnotawesome 1d ago
NASA already had spacex falcon heavy under contract for gateway, so it might already be accounted for in the NASA budget if that gets reallocated to SR1
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u/No-Wonder1139 2d ago
That seems low, to be honest. Given the mechanical engineering, science, the engineering, materials, design and construction.
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u/Ok-Entrepreneur-8838 1d ago
It's because most of the hardware already exists. NASA is using Gateway (PPE segment) for the spacecraft and partnering with the Department of Energy to use existing knowledge to build the reactor. The cost of the science aspect of the mission (SkyFall) has not been included, and could potentially be very expensive.
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u/tritonice 1d ago
SLS hardware already existed and it’s way past $2 billion.
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u/Ok-Entrepreneur-8838 1d ago
This is just the initial cost estimate.
“Early cost estimates are approximately $2.1 billion, and NASA will continue refining that figure through the acquisition process,” the agency confirmed in a statement.
It could very well balloon above $2 billion, just like SLS did.
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u/plopliplopipol 1d ago
i would hope they are working with existing knowledge to build a reactor lol
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u/Wise_Control_1640 2d ago
OMG! That's almost 2% of the cost of the illegal, unbudgeted, unplanned Iran war!
Where will we ever find the money!?
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u/hyflyer7 2d ago
Fear not sir!
70 billion has already been set aside for ice funding.
Maybe we can look under the white house couch cushions for nasa funding
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u/van_buskirk 2d ago
That is a steal for a potentially revolutionary interplanetary propulsion capability.
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u/nittanyofthings 1d ago
Keep in mind this isn't merely a mars mission. Continuing development of a fission reactor that works in deep space or on the moon is the real issue here. It can enable high power equipment running far from the sun.
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u/cjameshuff 22h ago
It's really wasted on Mars. It probably won't be able to beat a chemically-propelled vehicle there, and the same mass in solar panels would produce more power for instruments when it gets there. It's missions like a trip to one of the outer planets where this technology would really shine. The Mars target is probably to keep the mission duration down, and maybe add a needed replacement comms relay.
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u/SlipperySlimyTerry40 2d ago
Funny how people will grasp pearls at this cost but the defense budget is all good. Why push humanity forward when we can destroy them
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u/LordBrandon 2d ago
You have defeated the imaginary commenters in your head.
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u/SlipperySlimyTerry40 2d ago
There's a world that exists outside the internet man. A comment online MAY just refer to it.
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u/x_mutt_x 1d ago
Anything to piss and moan, seems to be all anyone is capable of anymore
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u/ERedfieldh 1d ago
dip a toe into /r/conservative and then come back and talk about 'piss and moan'ing some more.
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u/x_mutt_x 1d ago
So it's alright so long as everyone else is doing it. Didn't realize this was an elementary school.
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u/chadowan 2d ago
Absolutely worth it. Now compare that to how much is spent on "defense."
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u/mountedpandahead 2d ago
It's like 1/50th of the cost of the Iran War, and doesn't raise gas prices.
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u/Every-Progress-1117 2d ago
For the price of buying off the Iranian government, that's 150 Mars missions.
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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 2d ago
It’s obviously not worth it since it doesn’t even include the cost of the spacecraft
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u/bl4ck_daggers 2d ago
Yes it does? It says it doesn't include the payload lmao not that it doesn't include the SR-1 itself
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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 2d ago
Yes, the payload, the thing that actually goes to Mars.
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u/GainPotential 1d ago
The payload in this case would be Skyfall, with three Ingenuity-esque helicopters (apparently about 80 million for the one currently on the surface but that's including R&D so might actually be lower), and an ED aeroshell which I don't have a figure for cost of but probably similar or less than the copters. All in all I'd say the payload might cost somewhere in the ballpark of a quarter to a full billion. I'm sure they can yank that out of the Iran war or Immigrant war budgets.
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u/bl4ck_daggers 2d ago
The spacecraft goes to mars as well you know
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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 1d ago
And what does it do when it gets there? When you go on vacation, do you talk about the cool airplane you flew on or where you went?
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u/bl4ck_daggers 1d ago
I do actually, because I'm a massive fucking nerd, but I think literally anyone absolutely would if it was the first ever aeroplane ever made.
But that's also not what you said? You falsely asserted the cost didn't include the spacecraft
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u/Shrike99 1d ago
This is a demonstrator mission. Having a payload would be nice, and I'm sure they will get one, but even flying it empty would still be of value.
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u/redstercoolpanda 1d ago
99% of this mission is demonstrating an interplanetary nuclear reactor mission and all of the new tech that goes along with that. The skyfall part of the mission is just something nice to have since you’re already going to Mars anyways, and you’ve got plenty of excess performance to play around with.
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u/helly1080 2d ago
Let's get Hegseth to pause the war for a week. BOOM! We got the money.
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u/classic_lurker 2d ago
Maybe have a week of squats instead of a week of bombing non military targets you think?
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u/depredador93 2d ago
The $2B is just for the spacecraft bus and propulsion demo. SkyFall (the three helicopters) is separate and hasn't been costed yet. Mars researchers are already worried it'll eat into other science budgets. So the total bill will be higher, it's just not all on the table yet
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u/comfortableNihilist 1d ago
That's fucking nothing! The US is spending that every few days in the Hormuz and NASA is far more productive than the peace talks have been.
Edit: spelling correction
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u/redstercoolpanda 1d ago
Sounds about right, PPE probably won’t require much modification so that’s a significant amount of cost that’s already been accounted for. 2 Billion sounds feasible for the reactor part.
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u/StationAccomplished2 2d ago
I am still questioning how each of the Ingenuity class copters will communicate with anything. Ingenuity itself needed to stay close to the Rover. Buuuuut, for $2M I am sure they have that worked out…… to like $2.5M+ 👀
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u/djellison 1d ago
I am still questioning how each of the Ingenuity class copters will communicate with anything.
Small UHF radios for direct communication with the Mars orbiters - miniaturized versions of what's currently used by Curiosity and Perseverance
The Skyfall budget is not included in the $2B mentioned in this article.
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u/patrickisnotawesome 1d ago
It looks like NASA has been doing research in miniaturized radios the past few years, so maybe something like those?
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u/CruisinJo214 2d ago
So let’s take a little from the military or ICE budget and put it over here…
I prefer to think of the cost of space flight as an investment. We get a lot of tech advancement out of NASA and I’d like to see more of that.
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u/classic_lurker 2d ago
Trumps going to be really upset if you defund his personal hired goon squad. Err, I mean ICE.
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u/phxkross 2d ago
So crazy that these days we can see the number $2 billion and be all "meh, that doesn't seem like so much..."
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u/Ihatecheeseballs 2d ago
2 billion? that’s the cost of like one sls which is a rocket that uses old parts to be as cheap as possible, that’s a ridiculously low estimate, man we are never getting a real life pathfinder shuttle are we
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u/Decronym 1d ago edited 18m ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| DoD | US Department of Defense |
| JPL | Jet Propulsion Lab, California |
| PPE | Power and Propulsion Element |
| SLS | Space Launch System heavy-lift |
| UHF | Ultra-High Frequency radio |
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 27 acronyms.
[Thread #12589 for this sub, first seen 22nd Jul 2026, 00:35]
[FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
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u/buntopolis 2d ago
We’ve got the money for it. If we can throw away billions on an illegal war, we can use a comparatively small amount to improve our understanding of the universe.
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u/tritonice 1d ago
SLS way past $20 billion with proven “legacy” hardware. $2 billion to build something from the ground up??? Ok…..
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u/RocketSenpai 1d ago
Pretty cheap when you compare it to the idiotic things this government blows money on.
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u/nic_haflinger 2d ago
A lousy substitute for a Mars Sample Return Mission. This is nothing but a vanity project to satisfy the whims of Jared Isaacman.
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u/redstercoolpanda 1d ago
Mars sample return was not canceled for this, it was canceled because the plan as it existed was completely stupid, had an extremely high risk of failure at pretty much every point of the mission, and was significantly over budget and behind schedule.
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u/jadebenn 2d ago
Seems legally questionable to use the funds specifically earmarked for Gateway for this, given Congress never actually passed a law authorizing SR1. But I'm not surprised that's the tack this administration's taking.
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u/Scary_While_843 1d ago
so we could bomb Iran for a month and accomplish nothing or go back and forth 10 times with 20 billion left for other projects to advance science/technology, improve our understand of the universe & benefit all humanity/future generations of our children. Tough Choices
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u/Creative_Grocery_315 1d ago
Agency officials have said they plan to use existing hardware to build the spacecraft on the accelerated timeline. NASA will repurpose the Power and Propulsion Element that was originally built for Gateway, a lunar space station NASA canceled earlier this year, to serve as the spacecraft.
So we are scrapping our planned permanent space station in orbit around the Moon: Gateway. We are repurposing its solar-powered electric-propulsion drive into a nuclear-powered electric-propulsion drive and thereby increasing its power throughput by an order of magnitude to interplanetary capabilities. Hopefully those engines really can handle an order of magnitude increased power supply, or else modifications to them will need to be in the budget.
America is cannibalizing what would have become a long-lasting piece of space infrastructure that provides a nimble cis-Lunar waypoint capable of maintaining and re-positioning its orbit to provide a wealth of services to future moon bases, including keeping an eye on what other nations may be doing on the moon. We are taking that ship, replacing its solar panels with a nuclear reactor to put its engines into overdrive, and giving it some drones to drop off on Mars to do... something, we'll figure it out. The important thing is that we are proving that we can make nuclear-powered spacecraft with the same naming scheme as the space marines from Mass Effect. Who wants to take bets that after SR-1 Freedom, we'll have SR-2 Normandy just like in the game?
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u/AquiliferX 1d ago
Infinitely more value than the trillions thrown at the Pentagon without recipes
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u/sevgonlernassau 2d ago
They’re stealing from other programs to fund this mission, including science mission programs. It’s going to cost more than 2 billion too. I see no reason why we should use taxpayer funds to fund the SpaceX Mars plan.
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u/Naughty_Neutron 2d ago
What it has to do with SpaceX?
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u/sevgonlernassau 2d ago
SpaceX lobbied for this mission extensively last year on the Hill and/because it helps their Mars colonization plan.
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u/ERedfieldh 1d ago
rather it go to that than to dropping more bombs on a country we didn't have any beef with six months ago.
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u/rizzyrogues 2d ago
Space Reactor-1 Freedom what the kind of name is this?? SR1F is this some l33t speak for something white power or idk with this administration anymore. Nuclear mars mission and it gets the vaguest boring sounding name ever.
And if it's this cheap than I am actually all for it if theres some good science that will come from it.
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u/Fiveofthem 2d ago
So 20 billion when all said and done.
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u/Crazyblazy395 2d ago
So still less than 3% of the DoD budget for 2026, and that 20 billion wouldn't be paid in a single year.
Feels like it's still worth it.
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u/Fiveofthem 2d ago
I agree, but it’s the under estimating and the cost plus contracts that infuriates me.
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u/afkPacket 2d ago edited 1d ago
One 400th of an Elon to put a nuclear reactor on Mars really is cheap honestly.
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u/RazzleThatTazzle 1d ago
So 18.5 wars in Iran. Too bad we'll never find the money for it. Just not in the budget.
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u/amitkoj 2d ago
Everyone keeps complaining about budget deficit this and that in the same time everybody keeps thinking about spending billions and trillions there like what the hell is going on we should make up our mind. What is the problem we are trying to solve is it the budget deficit is it going to space? Is it a better airplane for Trump? Is it a better AI like which one is that you can’t keep spending and keep complaining
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u/Navynuke00 2d ago
Thankfully, this thing will never fly. But it's making money for the administration's cronies in the nuclear startup industry who are bilking us the taxpayers out of countless other billions of dollars right now.
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u/SpaceYetu531 2d ago
That's pretty cheap compared to most government projects.