# NASA is betting on cheaper missions as a way to sustain science. We built a database to check whether it works.

Source: [The Planetary Society Articles](https://www.planetary.org/articles/science-mission-impact-study) · 2026-11-12 · Space
Page: https://themorning.science/story/nasa-is-betting-on-cheaper-missions-as-a-way-to-sustain-science-we-built-a-datab-8cb5a2643f22d7f8
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- The Planetary Society built a database of 143 NASA science missions and 148,534 peer-reviewed papers to test whether cheaper missions can sustain science.
- Its main finding is that in every science division, the cheapest missions cannot replace the science return of larger ones.
- The study and an accompanying dashboard were published as the Science Mission Impact study.

## Why it matters

The finding bears directly on NASA's strategy of favouring lower-cost missions, and it quantifies science return by linking missions to published papers.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-12: The Planetary Society published the Science Mission Impact study and dashboard

## Coverage

- [NASA is betting on cheaper missions as a way to sustain science. We built a database to check whether it works.](https://www.planetary.org/articles/science-mission-impact-study) — The Planetary Society Articles, 2026-11-12

Tags: nasa, science policy, space missions, research funding, bibliometrics

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