Having met Casey Handmer personally, I'm confident the last thing he could be accused of is being anti-science. The man knows quite a bit about his domain of expertise!
The problem, mentioned in this article, is systematic one, not specific for this particular mission. Nowadays NASA operates in a mode, where failure is not an option. Any mission should be successful, which leads to costs explosion.
But this wasn't always the case. Earlier failure rate was high and thus missions were duplicated, just in case if one vehicle crashes/malfunctions. A good example for this were Viking landers and 2004 rovers.
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[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 19.2 ms ] threadIf there is any serious question about how to get samples back from Mars, there can be no serious plan to send people to Mars.
This article seems serious...
Ignore the OP, pay attention to actual science, and why safety measures matter:
https://www.reuters.com/science/nasa-rover-finds-potential-s...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/09/10/life-on...