WASHINGTON — NASA has budgeted about $130 million for a seven-instrument science payload announced July 31 for the sample-caching Mars rover the agency plans to launch in 2020. The price tag does not include the cost of three of the selected instruments that will be provided, in full or in part, by France, Norway and Spain.

The Mars 2020 rover — which NASA Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld said will cost about $1.9 billion to build and launch — will have three fewer science instruments than the Curiosity rover on which it is based. The science payload on Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars since its Aug. 6, 2012, landing, cost NASA just over $180 million.

But despite a lower price tag for Mars 2020’s U.S. instruments, NASA science officials maintain the rover’s 40-kilogram science payload will actually give scientists more bang for their buck relative to Curiosity.

“From a measurement standpoint … this really is a souped-up instrument suite compared to Curiosity,” Grunsfeld said during a July 31 press conference announcing the instrument selections.

The seven instruments were selected from among 58 proposals. The winning instruments, according to NASA’s press release, are: