Forget that trillion-dollar price tag -- Moon-Mars Tab Could Hit $100 Billion.

A hundred billion? Over fifteen years? Assuming those are present-value dollars, that would be an annual average budget of a mere $6.7 billion...a bit less than half of NASA's current budget and a bit more than what the Shuttle program ordinarily runs. The article suggests that the figure already includes a 45% historical average cost overrun, but even at $1445 billion over fifteen years it hardly seems to be a budget-buster, does it?

UPDATE: More coverage here, here, and here.