PARIS
— European Space Agency (ESA) governments tentatively have agreed to delay the
launch of Europe's first-ever Mars rover by a little more than two years, to
2016, as part of a broader effort to rein in project costs and seek deeper
cooperation with NASA and the Russian space agency, European government
officials said.
The
decision, made at an Oct. 15-16 meeting of ESA member governments at the
agency's headquarters here, remains fragile because some governments still are
resisting the price tag of the Enhanced ExoMars
mission: 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion), not including the
23 instruments to be paid for by various national laboratories.
ESA
had received informal estimates from Enhanced ExoMars prime contractor Thales
Alenia Space-Italy that the upgraded ExoMars project demanded by scientists
would cost about 1.2 billion euros for a launch
in late 2013.
Several
governments, including Italy, balked at the price and said they would not
participate at the expected level in the program.
Seeking
to find a compromise in time for a Nov. 25-26 meeting of ESA government
ministers, who will issue a formal yes-or-no decision on the mission, ESA
proposed that the launch slip to early 2016, and that the ESA-funded budget be
capped at 1 billion euros.
Agency
officials already had said the 2013 date would be difficult to meet. Fixing the
later date will permit project managers to run Enhanced ExoMars less like a
crash program, where costs are often under pressure. It also gives them more
time to reach formal agreements with NASA and the Russian space agency,
Roskosmos, on possible contributions to the rover payload and other mission
elements.
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