Summary of the meeting between Alan Stern and MEPAG representative


Following the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) meeting on July 10, 2007 at the 7th International Mars Conference, Jack Mustard (MEPAG Chair) relayed to Alan Stern (Associate Administrator for NASA-SMD) the outcomes of the MEPAG meeting and the response of the community to the recent developments of committing to a Mars Sample Return (MSR) in the coming decade and the development of a simple sample cache system to be placed on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

The meeting highlighted the major issue and of cost-overruns that are now constraining the program. The budget is so tight in fact that Dr. Stern stated that his vision is to launch MSR by 2020 but in order to be able to afford this, the program would need to skip one launch opportunity next decade.
Stern did however, mention international participation from European Space Agency is expected in MSR and may provide a significant contribution.

Support from other, now prominent, space faring nations is becoming critical to the survival of America's space program.