re: "Make no mistake, MSR is toast."
I hope you are correct that MSR is toast.
If MSR goes ahead and returns a few rocks, then the anti-manned exploration cranks will use MSR's success as a reason not to send man to Mars.
I'd rather wait an extra 20 years to get samples directly from Mars and have those samples returned in a spacecraft that is also carrying the men and women who collected them.
Scott Evil
