STUNG by two disastrous failed missions last year, NASA administrators
announced a new programme of Mars exploration last week that aims to proceed at
a more methodical and leisurely pace. But it means researchers will now have to
wait at least a dozen years before they get their hands on some real Martian
soil.
The space agency鈥檚 plans for 2005 and beyond include the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter in 2005 and a still unnamed lander in 2007. From then on, NASA will
settle into a pace of one Mars mission every 26 months and will alternate
orbiter and lander missions. Each will be launched when Mars and Earth draw
closest to each other, minimising the amount of fuel required.
The new schedule builds on the recommendations of a committee led by former
NASA administrator Tom Young, which investigated the causes of last year鈥檚
failures. Its report in March suggested NASA modify its 鈥渇aster, better,
cheaper鈥� approach. 鈥淎fter seven months, we feel that we鈥檝e checked off every box
in the Tom Young report,鈥� says Ed Weiler, NASA鈥檚 associate administrator for
space science.
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鈥淲e have not abandoned faster, better, cheaper,鈥� adds Scott Hubbard, Mars
programme director at NASA headquarters. 鈥淲e are implementing it in a very
prudent way.鈥� However, each new mission to Mars will cost over $300
million, more than the two failed missions combined.
NASA now hopes to jog to success where recently it seemed to sprint to
failure. Previously, the agency had aimed to send up multiple missions during
each launch window. Such aggressive scheduling paid off handsomely in 1997 when
NASA placed the Mars Global Surveyor into orbit and landed Mars Pathfinder,
whose tiny Sojourner rover captured the imagination of millions as it snooped
around the rocks near the lander. Such success was soon forgotten when the Mars
Climate Orbiter burnt up last September while entering the Martian atmosphere,
and the Mars Polar Lander crashed into the planet鈥檚 surface in December.
As part of its new plans, in 2007 NASA will initiate a parallel series of
missions put forward by academic and private sector researchers. The agency also
hopes to collaborate with the Italian government to launch an orbiting relay
station in 2009 to help other missions stay in contact with Earth.
The more relaxed schedule puts off a prime goal of the Mars programme:
returning a spacecraft to Earth with a sample of Martian soil. NASA had hoped to
launch such a mission in 2005. It will now have to wait until at least 2011.
Still, the programme will eventually meet all its objectives, Hubbard says. 鈥淭he
content is still there,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 different is the pacing.鈥�
