Keep in mind the safety issues surrounding the Cassini RTGs were a slam dunk. The thermal protection system was ridiculously over designed, protecting plutonium oxide slugs that where a refractory material not really requiring thermal protection. The millions of dollars spent on the safety studies for Cassini still did not stop the moonbats from launching an all out effort to make Cassini miss its narrow launch window. Despite NASA's best efforts, the moonbats were able to convince senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry to request Cassini's delay. Had Kerry and Boxer succeeded, Cassini would have gone on a one way trip to the Smithsonian rather than to Saturn.

Compared to Cassini, the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission is a much easier project for the moonbats to sabotage. We've all seen movies like the "War of the Worlds', "Andromeda Strain" and "Alien". We all know that outer space is teaming with dangerous life forms that will immediately exterminate all life on Earth if given half a chance. MSR's only hope was the public's absolute trust that NASA could return MSR's samples with perfect safety. Never mind that samples from the Martian surface are almost certainly sterile and the MSR return capsule would be based upon a fail safe design not needing a parachute. The trial lawyers now have their evidence. They could keep an MSR project tied up in court for decades and force it to miss any conceivable launch window. The environmental impact reports and litigation costs would keep legions of lawyers and engineers busy for years thus exhausting any reasonable project budget. This is an old trick of the environmentalists used with great success against the nuclear power industry. Make no mistake, MSR is toast.

Gary