The Mars
Science Laboratory mission, a jumbo rover originally slated to launch for the
red planet next year, has been delayed until 2011, NASA announced today.
"We
will not be ready to launch by the hoped-for date next year," said NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin at a briefing.
A major review of
the mission conducted earlier this year had concluded that MSL "had a
solid chance of making the 2009 launch" if the launch window was extended
into October 2009, which was done, and an additional $200 million was added to
the project, said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
But new
technical issues that came up since that review as well as missed delivery
schedules have prompted NASA officials to further delay the mission to avoid a
"mad dash to launch," Weiler said. "Failure on this mission is
not an option, the science is too important," he added.
The MSL
rover has a complex suite of instruments that can test the Martian surface
for signs of past potential habitability, including onboard chemistry labs and
a laser that can zap rocks to determine their composition.
The rover
may also leave some of its originally-planned
equipment behind.
The rover
is much larger than its Mars Exploration Rover (MER) cousins, Spirit and Opportunity,
weighing in at about 2,040 pounds (925 kg) and currently still operating on
Mars. MSL will also use a completely novel way of getting down to its landing
site called Sky Crane, which will have cords that attach it to the lander. As
the rover falls to the surface, the Sky Crane's thrusters should slow the
rover's descent as the crane uses the cords to lower the lander.
The mission
now is delayed for two years because launch windows to Mars are few and far
between because of the relative positions of Mars and Earth.
"We're
really only a few months behind schedule, not two years behind schedule,"
said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA
Headquarters.
Landing
sites for the mission, which were recently whittled down to a final four, will
likely be unaffected by the delay, McCuistion said.
The delay
will add an estimated $400 million to the mission, which could impact other
NASA programs, McCuistion said. NASA will aim to delay programs instead of
cutting any, officials said at a briefing today.
The
particular technical issues delaying the mission are with the rover's
actuators, which McCuistion describes as a combination of a motor and a gear
box. The actuators control anything in the rover that moves, including the
wheels and robotic arms.
"They're
absolutely crucial to the success of this mission," McCuistion said.
Without them "we'd basically have a metric ton of junk on the
surface" of Mars, he added.
Most of the
rover's hardware has been completed and the two years until launch will be
spent dealing with the actuators and any other technical issues that crop up.
"It's
not like it's going in a big plastic bag and sitting in the corner for two
years," McCuistion said.
Griffin
said: "I have full confidence in the JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] team
to work through the difficulties."
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