What was NASA’s original MAVEN life-cycle cost baseline?
MAVEN — the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission — is a NASA orbiter that studies how Mars lost much of its atmosphere. It also serves as a communications relay for missions on the Martian surface.
Published project estimate
$671 million
Cost basis: 2010
The short answer
$671 million
NASA's Office of Inspector General reported a $671 million project life-cycle cost through the end of planned operations. That complete project figure is the answer used in BudgetGuessr.
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
What the number includes
Cost scope
The source describes the life-cycle cost of the project, including planned operations. It should not be read as only the construction price of the orbiter or as a present-day inflation-adjusted value.
Project record
Opened or launched
NASA Office of Inspector General (IG-15-024)2013
Project context
About MAVEN
MAVEN launched in 2013 and entered Mars orbit in 2014. Its atmospheric measurements address a specific scientific question, while its relay role also supports the wider Mars exploration programme.
Reading the data
How to interpret the figure
The official source states the cost in US dollars. No foreign-exchange conversion is required, and Clueterra preserves the report's nominal-dollar basis.