Comments:NASA to extend the Phoenix probe mission by 5 weeks

Does anyone know why it'll cost an extra $2m to keep running the probe? Surely the only cost would be people on Earth monitoring the status of the probe. <Hoj Ferwerk (talk) 02:40, 2 August 2008 (UTC)>

That is the cost of running the monitoring stations, having scientists analyze the data, and paying people to sit there day and night and direct the probe, and troubleshoot any problems which crop up. Nothing comes free, and deep space monitoring arrays are expensive. Gopher65_talk 04:22, 2 August 2008 (UTC)