PASADENA, Calif. NASA has ordered the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) back to the drawing board in an effort to shrink the cost of its ambitious Space Interferometry Mission from an estimated $1.5 billion.
NASA hopes JPL will bring the price for the mission one of three the agency aims to launch in an effort to take the science of interferometry into space down to something close to $930 million.
"We said we cannot afford that," said Lia LaPiana, program executive at NASA Headquarters, of the higher number that would carry the mission through design, manufacture, launch and orbital checkout.
The Space Interferometry Mission, or SIM, project would combine the light from various telescopes working in unison to mimic the behavior of one, larger telescope. The mission wont launch before 2009 at the earliest,
Specifically, the SIM spacecraft would use interferometry to measure the positions and distances of stars hundreds of times more accurately than ever before, giving astronomers a cosmic yardstick to gauge distances throughout the galaxy. The mission would also probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. NASA also hopes to launch two other space interferometry missions, Space Technology 3 and the Terrestrial Planet Finder.
Originally, JPL claimed it could pull off SIM for just $600 million in 2001 dollars. Now, in the wake of more exhaustive studies of what sorts of technologies are required to pull off the mission, an independent analysis pegs its true cost at nearly three times that much.
"The major driver is when we developed these rough estimates of what this mission would cost four years ago, we hadnt done any of [those studies]," LaPiana said.
JPL will have until April or later to present to NASA Headquarters one or more less-costly plans for the mission.
Ed Weiler, NASAs associate administrator for space science, said that asking JPL to rework the SIM project falls under the same rubric of what the agency did to its campaign to explore Mars following the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander probes.
"Im basically doing what we did with Mars except with Mars we had to lose two missions first," Weiler said.
SIMs reworking will likely involve a fresh look at the missions design concept, including a possible change of launch vehicle. Originally, a next-generation rocket was to launch SIM. Now, LaPiana said, NASA is encouraging JPL to look at using a space shuttle instead. That plan, for instance, would allow NASA to equip SIM with a fixed, 11-yard (10-meter) beam required to separate its various telescopes, rather than a more costly hinged contraption necessary, were the spacecraft to be stuffed aboard a rocket for launch.
Although the technique of interferometry has been around for more than a century, only now is it coming into widespread use in ground-based facilities. Those include the
, were originally budgeted at a total cost of roughly $650 million. That number has since soared to more than $1.4 billion, prompting NASA to suspend work on the Pluto probe.Weiler said he has given JPL until later this year to sharpen its pencil, reshape the missions and lower their cost. Although the Europa mission is now being prioritized, its no shoo-in at an estimated price tag of $850 million, Weiler said.
"Right now, Im looking for anything because we cant afford them as it is," Weiler told SPACE.com at a recent meeting in Pasadena, California of the American Astronomical Societys Division for Planetary Sciences.
One possibility, Weiler said, is that NASA put out the Europa mission for competitive bid in an effort to lower its price. Currently, the mission would not launch before 2007.
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