NASA Delays Mars Scout Mission to 2013
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:49:30 -0800 (PST)
Dec. 21, 2007
Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
grey.hautaluoma-1@xxxxxxxx
RELEASE: 07-283
NASA DELAYS MARS SCOUT MISSION TO 2013
WASHINGTON - NASA announced today that the next mission in the Mars
Scout program, originally planned for launch in 2011, is now targeted
for launch in 2013. The schedule slip is because of an organizational
conflict of interest that was discovered in one of the mission
proposal team's Phase A Concept Study. This was the shortest delay
for the mission possible because opportunities to send spacecraft to
Mars occur only once every 26 months.
NASA will fund current proposals to meet a new launch date in 2013.
Revised proposals will be due in August 2008, and the evaluation and
selection will take place in December 2008.
In November, NASA postponed the Scout mission's evaluation,
selection,
and announcement so the agency could resolve an organizational
conflict of interest. The conflict of interest was discovered shortly
after the concept study reports were received.
The extent of the conflict was severe enough that NASA determined its
only recourse was to stop the evaluation and reconstitute the entire
review panel that provides the technical and cost analyses for
mission selections.
"The panel's independent expertise and evaluation are critical to
maintaining a fair and competitive mission selection process," said
Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program,
NASA Headquarters, Washington. "This was a difficult decision, but
necessary to preserve the integrity of the process, while ensuring we
have adequate resources for the mission we ultimately select."
The delay in selection, resulting from reconstituting the entire
review team and replanning the evaluation schedule, is approximately
four months. Because of the delay, proposers would be left an
unacceptable schedule, and schedule reserve, to meet a targeted
launch date of 2011. Changing the launch date to the next Mars
opportunity in 2013 reestablishes an acceptable and achievable
schedule for the mission.
"We regret the delay, but NASA is taking this step to be proactive in
preventing problems early on," said Mars Exploration Program Director
Doug McCuistion, NASA Headquarters. "Because these are cost-capped
missions, it is better to address the schedule risk now rather than
put the winning proposer at a cost and schedule disadvantage from the
start. Delaying the next Scout mission and allowing the mission teams
to replan their proposed missions for 2013 reestablishes an
acceptable schedule to meet a Mars launch date. It will also reduce
the risk of cost overruns driven by the tight mission schedule that
would have resulted if launch had remained in 2011."
In the first round of the Mars Scout 2006 competition, two missions
for 2011 originally selected from 26 proposals for further evaluation
in a concept study phase. The selected missions were the Mars
Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN and the The Great
Escape, or TGE, mission. The principal investigator for MAVEN is
Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado, Boulder. The TGE principal
investigator is Jim Burch, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio.
Both missions would provide similar measurements of Mars' upper
atmosphere, including its dynamics and evolution, which have been
given a high priority by the scientific community.
The Mars Scout Program is designed to send a series of small, low-
cost
missions to the Red Planet that are competitively selected. The first
robotic spacecraft in this program is the Phoenix lander, which was
launched Aug. 4, 2007, and is scheduled to land in the icy northern
polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008.
NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand
Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment,
climate cycles, geology and biological potential. The Mars
Exploration Program Office is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for the Mars Exploration Program,
Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For more information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mars
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