Please, someone, send more MERs!!

We have a design that seems to work pretty damn well. Even the TES on Oppy has survived weeks of temps below its supposed minimum.

If all we did was make some exact clones, manufacturing only, no new R&D, how much would a mission cost? Obviously launch isn't cheap especially since other opportunities won't have such favorable trajectories, and there is plenty spent on mission planning and such. And of course some of the MER development was paid for years ago since NASA has been funding robotic rover technology for years.

So realistically, if this year's missions cost $800 million, how much would it cost to to fly one, two, or more clones in 2009? If the answer is that for $800 million we'd get four cloned rovers, that could be worth doing and delaying the nuclear-powered skycrane-landed MSL. Better yet do both, but I'm not *that* much of a dreamer.

Likewise, are the more sites that could be usefully explored with this design? It does require that you be likely to find something interesting within a mile or two, on fairly easy terrain, where pinpoint landings aren't needed. Meridiani is perfect for that, it seems like we'd have gotten these results in a large fraction of hte landing ellipse. Gusev had some luck involved: five miles further downrange and we'd have touched nothing but basalt plains. Other locations?