In a perfect world, one could look at NASA and trim the fat. In the larger budget picture, it is incredibly difficult. Every program is worthy to someone and there are endless worthy things to spend money on. When it comes to cutting our budget, it is impossible to cut things that aren’t worthy of spending money on.

I agree that NASA’s planetary program has been better run and more successful than SLS et al. But that doesn’t mean it never engages in the same types of budget gamesmanship. I recall that the ascent of Mt. Sharp was high on the list of Curiosity’s goals from the beginning. At some point (probably quite early) somebody in the program had a revelation: “Once we’ve climbed Mt. Sharp, we will have accomplished our most visible objective, and we’ll be subject to calls for project termination.”

At this point I expect the RTG’s to give out before the rover actually reaches the summit of Mt. Sharp.