Getting aproval might take a decade or two.

What really blows me away is
In the 1960's we were launching rockets every six weeks (Apollo anyway) and got amazing things done in very short order – even after the huge disaster of Apollo one. 18 months later, we were on the Moon.

Now that Russia, China, Japan, India and ESA are all looking (almost drooling) at the moon – MAYBE we can speed this process up and get going again!!!

Wasted Thirty years……………… OUCH!

Simple: it's out of reach.

You know what I'd like to see? A whole fleet of Spirit and Opportunity clones, scattered all around Mars. They could be built by a fraction of the cost of a totally new mission, since there would be no new hardware development needed (we know how reliable the hardware is), which means that they could be sent to more risky places, instead of just your customary flatland. If they come up with just a fraction of the information the two robotic heros dug up, so to speak, they'd be fabulous all the same.

Anyway, Phenix has a totally different approach, following the footsteps layed out by VIking, only a lot more sophisticated. Each kind of mission has its own pluses and minuses, and perhaps the biggest shortcoming of this one is being static. On the other hand, it can do a lot of things small rovers cannot.

"Looks like the retro rockets disturbed the surface a bit – I wonder how far they will have to go down to reach undisturbed ground.

Whilst they surely thought of this, it does make one wish slightly for a bit of mobility. – and what if there's something like a crack that looks promising but is out of reach?"

Yeah – It would have been nice if they were able to have bunged a few wheels on the thing just to provide perhaps up to 50m of lateral movement or so, just to get it out of the blast area from the retro rockets. But that's being picky I suppose.

Whilst they surely thought of this, it does make one wish slightly for a bit of mobility. – and what if there's something like a crack that looks promising but is out of reach?