Re: It won't save any money
"There ARE costs at 3 levels. First is the Deepspace Network costs. Second is Mars-relay-orbiter costs. Third is project-direct costsfor MER."
But who are you paying the money to and will you be be saving anything by not paying it? The answer is they are basically paying themselves so no, at best the money goes somewhere else. The real question is will the money be used more effectively by using the resources on other projects.