WASHINGTON
-- NASA notified the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this week that its contract to
build a robotic lunar lander would be allowed to expire at the end of March and
would not be renewed -- at least not anytime soon.
The U.S.
space agency also intends to close the Lunar
Precursor and Robotics Program Office it established at the Marshall Space
Flight Center last year and move management responsibility for the 2008
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and its piggy-back Lunar
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to NASA Headquarters here.
"NASA has
recommended that APL's lunar lander contract be allowed to
expire at the end of March and NASA did informally notify APL of that fact on
Monday," NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said Thursday. "This notification was not
a surprise to APL. NASA specifically structured the contract to expire at the
end of March."
Dickey said
NASA's intention to let the APL contract expire and close down Marshall's lunar
robotics office is reflected in the 2007 operating plan the agency was expected
to submit to Congress by March 15. By law, Congress has 15 days to review that
plan -- which details how NASA intends to spend the money it was given for 2007
-- and request changes.
"These
recommendations are the result of an overall budget strategy being adopted by
the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in an effort to meet top priority
program needs and to keep development of the next generation of U.S. human
space vehicles on track," Dickey said.
The Laurel,
Md.-based Applied Physics Laboratory was selected by NASA in September 2005 to
work under the guidance of the Marshall Space Flight Center to design and build
a robotic lander that could be launched to the Moon by 2011 to demonstrate
advanced descent and landing techniques and determine whether the lunar poles
harbor water ice. The mission, known at the time as Robotic Lunar Exploration
Precursor 2, was given a target price tag of $400 million to $750 million.
NASA has
been rethinking its robotic lunar exploration strategy over the last 18 months
and recently concluded that it has no immediate need for any unmanned Moon missions beyond the
heavily-instrumented Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) [image]
currently in development for a late 2008 or early 2009 launch. LRO's rocket
will carry a secondary payload dubbed the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite [image].
The combined cost of the two missions is just under $800 million.
"Near term
funding is not going to be available for planning future lunar robotic
programs," Dickey said. "Those are going to be deferred until such a time as
constellation requirements dictate a need for additional data beyond what will
be provide by LRO and [the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite]."
advertisement
