Yet another NASA project runs budget into the red.
NASA have had some pretty inspiring dreams over the years, planting a person on the moon and playing a large part in the creation of the International Space Station (ISS).
Their latest dream is the Mars Science Laboratory; an unmanned remote rover weighing in at over a tonne, which is destined for Mars to study a wide range of planetary features.
Just like any expensive project this one had a giant reservoir of cash attached to the tune of US$1.63 billion, but it's now run aground of that barrier and has smashed through to US$2.286 billion - and it's not stopping yet.
A series of replacements to the motors and electronic equipment meant that the dry lubricant needed changing to wet lubricant, which also meant that the components drew twice as much power, needing larger batteries and so on.
They're looking to take the budget from further planned Mars missions to find the extra, but this might leave them with not enough if it runs too far overbudget.
We remain skeptical here for now but the damage to further missions might have already been too large, limiting the extent that NASA will be able to explore in later years.
Head over to Nature News to read some more on the rover.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009