Tue, Jan 24, 2006
Cost Overruns Keep Dawn On The Ground
NASA's Dawn spacecraft,
which was to be launched this summer on a mission to explore two of
the solar system's largest asteroids, will remain on the ground
while the agency struggles with cost overruns and technical issues
with the program.
Mission planners had actually been ordered to halt work on the
probe last fall, according to the Associated Press, pending an
independent review of the program. Those findings should be
presented to NASA January 27.
Even if the project is given the green light, however, it would
take at least another year to run final tests and prepare the
spacecraft for launch, according to the University of California's
Christopher Russell, who is principal investigator on the
mission.
"It's like running a relay race," Russell said. "You're on your
last leg and the judges suddenly say 'Stop.' You lose your
momentum."
Dawn is part of NASA's Discovery program, which was originally
conceived to explore the solar system on a relatively inexpensive
budget. The successful Stardust mission, which just ended last
week, is also part of Discovery.
Unlike Stardust, the Dawn program (which advertises "The
Asteroid Belt at Your Fingertips" on its NASA website) has suffered
several setbacks -- including ruptured fuel tanks that forced
engineers to make due with lower levels of xenon gas to fuel the
probe's anticipated nine-year journey to Ceres and Vesta. Both
asteroids are in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and
Mars.
Originally, the program's cost was capped at $371 million,
according to Russell. When project scientists went looking for
another $40 million, NASA ordered the stand down to find out
why.
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