A showdown over the course of Solar System exploration has ended with a qualified victory for Mars. NASA's planetary-science decadal survey, which sets mission priorities for 2013-22, firmly favours a mission to Mars over a rival one to Jupiter's icy moon Europa (see Nature 466, 168-169; 2010). But the decision marks the beginning of a much bigger battle: to secure the budget to lift the multibillion-dollar project off the survey's pages and into the heavens.
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