Historically, just getting anything to another planet costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Perseverance launch alone cost $243 million (total mission cost was $2.7 billion). It is an enormous expenditure.
You might be interested that Rocket Lab's Electron now can launch small interplanetary spacecraft for low-eight figures (~$10 million for the launch to lunar orbit for NASA CAPSTONE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPSTONE#Launch).
However, the Electron payload capacity is small (a few hundred KGs). I doubt it is enough for much equipment, but I believe a camera/radio/parachute is feasible. Take these prices with a big grain of salt, as I am just a hobbyist, but now you can get a spacecraft to an interplanetary body for probably around $20-$30 million dollars. As costs fall and other next-gen rockets become operational, I am hopeful that we see more interplanetary landings over the coming decades.
Comments
Historically, just getting anything to another planet costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Perseverance launch alone cost $243 million (total mission cost was $2.7 billion). It is an enormous expenditure.
You might be interested that Rocket Lab's Electron now can launch small interplanetary spacecraft for low-eight figures (~$10 million for the launch to lunar orbit for NASA CAPSTONE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPSTONE#Launch).
However, the Electron payload capacity is small (a few hundred KGs). I doubt it is enough for much equipment, but I believe a camera/radio/parachute is feasible. Take these prices with a big grain of salt, as I am just a hobbyist, but now you can get a spacecraft to an interplanetary body for probably around $20-$30 million dollars. As costs fall and other next-gen rockets become operational, I am hopeful that we see more interplanetary landings over the coming decades.
(disclosure, I am a RKLB shareholder.)