What life-cycle cost did NASA list for Mars 2020 in 2020?
Mars 2020 carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter to Jezero crater. The mission searches for signs of ancient microbial life, stores selected samples and demonstrates technologies for future exploration.
Published project estimate
$2.7258 billion
Cost basis: 2020
The short answer
$2.7258 billion
A NASA Office of Inspector General report gives Mars 2020 a project life-cycle cost of $2.7258 billion. This mission-level amount is the source-backed answer used by BudgetGuessr.
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
What the number includes
Cost scope
The figure represents the NASA project's life cycle, rather than only the rover chassis or its launch. It provides a defined scope for comparing Mars 2020 with other exploration missions.
Project record
Project context
About Mars 2020
Mars 2020 launched in July 2020 and landed in February 2021. Perseverance is substantially larger than a stationary lander, while Ingenuity became the first aircraft to make powered flights on another world.
Reading the data
How to interpret the figure
The official amount is already in US dollars. Clueterra makes no currency conversion and does not present it as a current-dollar inflation adjustment.