The US space agency (Nasa) has delayed the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory rover mission. MSL was scheduled to fly next year, but the mission has been dogged by testing and hardware problems. The rover’s launch would now be postponed until late 2011, agency officials said. The mission is using innovative technologies to explore whether microbial life could ever have existed on the Red Planet. The delay could add $400m to the price tag, which is likely to top $2bn. “Trying for ‘09 would require us to assume too much risk, more than I think is appropriate for a flagship mission,” said Nasa’s administrator Michael Griffin. The launch date was changed following an assessment by the mission’s scientists and engineers of the progress it has made in the past three months. “Despite exhaustive work in multiple shifts by a dedicated team, the progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together,” said Charles Elachi, director of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, US. “The right and smart course now for a successful mission is to launch in 2011.” Technology hurdles MSL will use novel technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the Martian atmosphere, and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering platform. It is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers and contains a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on Nasa’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. “Up to this point, efforts have focused on launching next year, both to begin the exciting science and because the delay will increase taxpayers’ investment in the mission,” said Doug McCuistion, director of Nasa’s Mars exploration programme. “However, we’ve reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing.” Engineers have struggled with the development of MSL’s complex actuators – the motors that drive and turn the rover’s wheels, and operate its robotic arm. The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favourable for flights to the Red Planet only a few weeks every two years.
MSL will use novel technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the Martian atmosphere, and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering platform.
It is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers and contains a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on Nasa’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.
“Up to this point, efforts have focused on launching next year, both to begin the exciting science and because the delay will increase taxpayers’ investment in the mission,” said Doug McCuistion, director of Nasa’s Mars exploration programme.
“However, we’ve reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing.”
Engineers have struggled with the development of MSL’s complex actuators – the motors that drive and turn the rover’s wheels, and operate its robotic arm.
The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favourable for flights to the Red Planet only a few weeks every two years.
The next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011. The window in 2011 runs through October to December.
