NASA鈥檚 new missions to Mars won鈥檛 be quite as fast or as cheap as recent ones, but NASA administrators hope they鈥檒l be a whole lot better than last year鈥檚 pair of flops.
The American space agency announced its plans for 2005 and beyond on Thursday. It will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 and an as yet unnamed lander in 2007. After that, NASA will alternate orbiter and lander missions to Mars every 26 months. These will be launched when Mars and Earth draw closest to each other, minimising the amount of fuel required.
As already planned, the Mars Odyssey Orbiter will be launched next year and the twin Mars Exploration Rovers in 2003.
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NASA is hoping the revamped missions will allow it to trot to success rather than sprint to failure. A simple navigational error caused the Mars Climate Orbiter to burn up in September 1999 as it entered the Martian atmosphere. Less than three months later, the Mars Polar Lander was destroyed when it crashed into the planet鈥檚 surface after its thrusters cut out too early.
The new plans follow an investigation into the causes of those failures. In March 2000, a team led by former NASA administrator Thomas Young released a report suggesting changes in the agency鈥檚 鈥渇aster, better, cheaper鈥� approach to Mars exploration.
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.
The more relaxed schedule should allow NASA to thoroughly analyse problems in one orbiter or lander mission while still designing the next. 鈥淲e have not abandoned faster, better, cheaper,鈥� says Scott Hubbard, Mars programme director at NASA headquarters. 鈥淲e are implementing it in a very prudent way.鈥�
That prudence comes at a price. New missions to Mars will cost upwards of $300 million, more than the Polar Lander and Climate Orbiter combined.
Martian soil
NASA鈥檚 plans include a series of small missions chosen from proposals by academic and private-sector researchers. The agency also hopes to collaborate with the Italian government to launch a Mars orbiter in 2009 that is dedicated to relaying radio signals from landers to Earth.
The new schedule postpones a prime goal of the Mars programme: bringing a spacecraft back 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 Mars 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�