"This report is an embarrassment to the agency," said McCain, the former presidential candidate and Arizona senator, of the report released yesterday by an independent review board headed by Lockheed Martin executive Thomas Young. "I think a thorough review of Mars Polar Lander documents is not just in order, it’s imperative."
Senators from the Commerce Committee asked that all material related to the craft’s braking thrusters and rocket engine be delivered no later than April 7 to review the "best numbers available" on the reliability of the ill-fated Polar Lander.
The Young report points to a faulty propulsion system – and ultimately deep funding shortages and faulty management practices as root causes behind the loss of the lander and its predecessor, the Mars Climate Orbiter last fall.
The report said the craft failed when the opening of the lander’s legs sent a signal to shut of the craft’s engine during its descent to the Red Planet's surface last December. The spacecraft likely crashed after the engine cut off, Young’s report found.
The lawmakers are apparently concerned by allegations raised in a news story last week that preflight-testing criteria for the MPL may have been scaled back until the craft passed the tests.
"Last week’s hearing on NASA management, and recent developments have made it clear that more stringent oversight is necessary," said Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), who chairs the subcommittee that grilled NASA Administrator Dan Goldin over lax management practices last week. "It may be time to amend NASA’s mantra of ‘faster, better, cheaper’ to include ‘back to basics.’"
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina) echoed similar concerns. "In light of the issues raised by the Young report, we want to be confident that risks being taken are in pursuit of scientific breakthroughs, and are not as a result of errors on the ground."
House members also apparently endorse the request to see tests, and Young is to defend his report in front of the House Science Committee on April 12, said spokesman Jeff Lungren.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), chair of the subcommittee, said upon first glance he found the report to be lacking.
"I don’t think the report got into the fundamentals in the serious way that it should have," Rohrabacher said. "We didn’t task these people to do a report in order to raise questions, we asked them to provide answers."
Specifically, Rohrabacher said he wasn’t satisfied yet with the answer to why there wasn’t a test on the Mars Polar Lander’s gear that would indicate its deployment may have prematurely shut down the engine as it descended to the martian surface. "If a test wasn’t done, why wasn’t it done? If someone didn’t ask for it, why didn’t they? So far it doesn’t answer that question."
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