Mars Pathfinder was sold as a technology demonstrator and that's all it really was despite all the media hype. The later Mars landers (Mars Polar Lander and Mars 2001 lander) were sacrificed (as engineering failures) on the altar to Dan Goldin's ego. There are two Mars landers that will be launched next year that are genuine science missions, i.e. Mars Exploration Rover (MER). MER is a well designed vehicle and will reach Mars in 2004. Also by coincidence, Cassini will reach Saturn in 2004. Cassini was JPL's last hurrah in terms of large, extremely powerful scientific space craft (like Viking, Voyager, Mars Observer and Galileo). 2004 will be a banner year for NASA and JPL. However after 2004, "that's IT"! While there's lots of little stuff planned (Discovery Missions), there's nothing really spectacular in the pipeline. NASA was planning on sending a really big lander to Mars in 2005 but the funding and planning got SNAFUed (like usual). Its mission time got pushed back to 2007, then 2009 and now it's in limbo.
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to It is telling that you think Pathfinder was the first success in years.
Pathfinder was a technology demonstrator but there's good stuff coming...