Mars Science Laboratory Project Changes Respond to Cost Increases, Keep Mars Program On Track

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/Rover_Update.html#20070917

Mars Science Laboratory Project Changes Respond to Cost
Increases, Keep Mars Program On Track

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 17, 2007

In early June 2007, the Mars Science Laboratory project completed its
project-wide Critical Design Review (CDR), which marks the completion
of
the project's design phase and transition into the build up of flight
hardware. A key component of the CDR process was a technical risk,
programmatic, and cost review, from which multiple independent cost
assessments predicted that this technically challenging $1.7B
planetary
science rover mission's current content would cause it to exceed its
budgeted development costs to launch by approximately $75M.

Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, Mars Science Laboratory is
the
next step of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of
robotic exploration of the red planet. Mars Science Laboratory is a
rover that will assess a variety of scientific objectives, including
whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to
support
microbial life. The rover will carry the biggest, most advanced suite
of
instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian surface.
Dozens of samples of Mars soil and rocks as the rover makes its
travels
will be analyzed by MSL to detect chemical building blocks of life as
well as what the Martian environment was like in the past.

Because the success of MSL is of course of high importance to NASA's
Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SMD, working with the MSL Project
and
Mars Program at JPL, concluded that the MSL project required some
focused and prudent reductions in scope in order to better ensure
project success. Furthermore, because all of the funds MSL requested
were not available in the Mars Exploration Program reserves pool, and
because SMD did not want to impact other current or future science
missions to fund these new costs, the Science Mission Directorate at
NASA Headquarters has been working closely with the MSL project and
the
science community to identify mission scope reductions to minimize the
project's need for funds, while minimizing both technical risk and
impacts to the mission's science return.

As a result of this careful process, a combination of low-impact
mission
scope reductions and some new funding from the Mars Program's reserves
pool, has been agreed upon. Together these measures effectively
resolve
the MSL cost increase issues identified at its CDR.

Engineering changes to the mission include some reductions in design
complexity, reductions in planned spares, some simplifications of
flight
software, and some ground test program changes. These changes were
selected largely to help reduce mission risks. Changes in mission
science content were limited to removal of the Mars Descent Imager
(MARDI), the MASTCAM zoom capability from the mission, and a change
from
a rock grinding tool to a rock brushing tool. As noted by the science
input NASA received, most of MARDI's capability can be provided by the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRise camera now in orbit and working
successfully. Furthermore, NASA has directed that the project expend
no
additional funds on ChemCam, and cost-cap SAM and CheMin at their
current budgets. Future budget requests for these instruments cannot
be
funded. However none of the roving instruments were removed from the
payload, and the science team also remains entirely intact.

"I am very pleased that we were able to resolve this challenge to the
Mars Program without delaying or canceling any other mission in the
Mars
Program or other parts of SMD, and we avoided impacting Research and
Analysis. We were also able to reduce some risks in MSL's development
and flight." said Dr. Alan Stern, NASA's Associate Administrator for
Science. "The MSL project, Mars Program, JPL and NASA HQ worked
together
to constrain the impacts to the Mars Program and keep MSL on schedule
for its launch in 2009, and we all feel we succeeded." added Doug
McCuistion, Mars Program Director.

.

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