NASA Still Bound for Mars

We watched earlier in the year the progress of the twin Mars rovers’, Opportunity and Spirit, as they trundled across the Martian surface. Over the past few months we have watched as the Phoenix Lander has found evidence of water on the Red Planet. Thanks to these successes, NASA is planning on sending another rover to Mars.

The Mars Science Laboratory, a six wheeled SUV-sized nuclear-powered rover, is still set to launch in 2009, despite rising costs and schedule pressures.

NASA’s top managers met recently to ascertain the status and feasibility of the project. Concerns of costs rising have plagued the project. NASA has already spent $1.5 billion on the project and expects it to top off somewhere closer to $2 billion. Concerns have also been raised over whether the engineers behind the project can get it up and running in time.

But Doug McCuistion, the man who is heading up the Mars exploration program at NASA, said that they are going to press on for the time being. He noted that a lot of work lays ahead of them, and that a revisit of the mission will take place in January.

The mission has also come under criticism from a group of scientists that advise NASA on planetary missions. They called last week for an outside investigation into the Mars Science Lab’s financial troubles, noting that the costly project was a “poor model for future missions.”

However the Mars Science Lab would probably be another popular success, even if it is never a financial success. With a scientific payload of at least 10 instruments, the rover would focus on acquiring geological evidence of whether microbial life has ever or could ever exist on Mars.

Posted by Josh Hill.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MARS_SCIENCE_LAB?SITE=AP

Comments

[EvilCosmicMonkey from Knoxville]

It's nice that we're committed to exploring the Red Planet by proxy, but surely there must be a less expensive space probe that would be just as efficient.
Were any of the Russian probes to Mars successful ? I understand that most of them " died " en route.