Whenever I hear about them doing cool new things with the various space probes and rovers I can't help but think the situation was along the lines of "now that we're done with the core mission stuff and Sauron's gaze has averted (i.e. management has a new shiny to care about) we can really play cowboy putting it through its paces".

I would not discard this is oft where a lot - if not most of the actual discovery happens ...

... pushing the envelope.-