TWO Russian rockets and a cost-cutting exercise have finally saved the
European Space Agency鈥檚 Cluster mission. Four satellites are due to be launched
in 2000 to replace those lost when Ariane 5 blew up in June last year.
As late as February the prospects for resurrecting the mission, which will
study the interaction between the Earth鈥檚 magnetic field and the solar wind,
looked grim. Germany, Britain and France said they could not afford to pay for
their share of the payload of scientific instruments. But ESA then floated a
plan to revive the mission by launching on cheaper Russian rockets and delaying
other science missions (In Brief, 8 March, p 10). The plan was backed by the
agency鈥檚 Science Programme Committee last week.
The original estimate for reviving Cluster was put at 拢170 million. Now
this has been scaled back to around 拢150 million. As part of the plan, ESA
will provide about 拢12.5 million to pay for scientific instruments that
Britain, Germany and France refused to finance.
Advertisement
Instead of relying on an Ariane rocket, the revived Cluster will use two
Russian Soyuz launchers, which come courtesy of a deal signed in December
between the French aerospace companies Arianespace and Aerospatiale, the Russian
Space Agency and the Russian company Samara.
The full effects of resurrecting Cluster on other missions have not been
worked out. The COBRAS/SAMBA mission, for example, which will study cosmic
background microwave radiation, has already been delayed by six months because
of previous rounds of cost-cutting as ESA tried to salvage Cluster.
An ESA spokesman says further delays are now likely. 鈥淔uture science missions
may suffer a little delay,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it will only be in terms of
尘辞苍迟丑蝉.鈥�