LOS ANGELES
(AP) — NASA's flagship mission to land a nuclear-powered, next-generation rover
on Mars is facing development problems and ballooning costs that could threaten
its scheduled launch next year.
NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin told a congressional hearing this month that
engineers had to redesign the heat shield on the Mars Science Laboratory after
tests showed the protective layer would not survive entry through the Martian
atmosphere.
The extra
work is expected to add $20 million (euro13.23 million) to $30 million
(euro19.84 million) to the $1.8 billion (euro1.19 billion) price tag, already
$165 million (euro109.12 million) over budget.
NASA is still aiming for a 2009 launch, but the space agency
is also mulling alternative voyages in 2010 and 2011, Griffin told the House Science and Technology
Committee on Feb. 13.
"Things
have gone along more slowly than we would like," Griffin said.
Any delay
of the Mars Science Lab would deal a major setback to NASA, which already had
to push back a mission to send an atmospheric probe to the Red Planet because
of an undisclosed conflict of interest in the purchasing process.
The Mars
Science Lab will be the most advanced and expensive unmanned probe ever sent to
the Martian surface. The 9-foot (2.74-meter)-long mobile robot is larger and
can travel farther than the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, that are still alive four years
after parachuting to opposite ends of Mars.
Both rovers
have uncovered geologic evidence of ancient water on the planet. The goal of
the Mars Science Lab is to determine whether the environment could once have
been favorable for microbial life using sophisticated instruments to measure
for the presence of life's chemical building blocks and beam the discoveries
back to Earth.
Science
gleaned by the Mars Science Lab is also expected to help prepare NASA for its
long-term plans to fly humans to Mars after a return to the moon.
Engineers
initially wanted to use a heat shield like the type on the space shuttle's
external fuel tank, but extensive testing last spring proved it would break.
NASA switched to a stronger cover similar to the one that cocooned the Stardust
probe, which returned to Earth in 2006 with comet dust.
Because
Stardust re-entered Earth's atmosphere at twice the speed expected for Mars
Science Lab, engineers feel confident the new shield will hold, said NASA
spokesman Dwayne Brown.
Griffin said development hurdles are to be
expected in such a complex project and he didn't consider the problems to be
out of the ordinary.
Some
members of the Mars science community expressed concerns about the mission's
progress. Brown University geologist John Mustard said that if the launch date slips,
the costs will soar.
"It
kind of interrupts what has been an incredibly successful sequence of missions,"
said Mustard, who heads an advisory group that gives scientific input on future
Mars projects.
It is not
the first time the Mars Science Lab has run into problems. The project is
managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
To control
costs, NASA last year cut a camera from the mission and halted work on a laser
chemistry tool. As a result, San Diego-based contractor Malin Space Science
Systems agreed to develop the camera at its own expense and the project
received outside funds to continue work on the laser instrument.
U.S. Rep.
Mark Udall, a Democrat, said in a statement he would not question NASA's
decision to delay the launch if needed. However, Udall, who is on the House
committee, added: "I want to be confident that NASA is doing all that it
can to carry out the ... development efficiently and effectively."
Some space
policy analysts contend that if the Mars Science Lab's budget spirals out of
control, it could raise questions about the cost-effectiveness of robotic
exploration.
"The
repercussions are more pronounced for the future of the space program,"
said Howard McCurdy, an American University public policy professor. "Are robots really that much
more superior to human beings for going to the planets? Or are robots harder
than we thought to manage?"
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