The US Decadal Survey on planetary exploration was released last night - very grim reading for US scientists and current planned missions. Basically, missions like Mars sample return need to be massively descoped in order to fit in the budget profile for the next few years. The only mission that currently fits is an Uranus orbiter/atmospheric probe - no Mars, no Europa. They're hoping ESA will help with the financial burden, but there's fat chance of that, given that ESA is descoping its own medium class missions, never mind large class ones as proposed by NASA.
Of course, planetary astronomers are not being helped by ESMD's budget being swallowed up by work on JWST.....of which, as an IR astronomer, I'd very much like to see fly, but I have severe doubts that it will.
The golden age is coming to an end.
  