Two-year delay for NASA's Mars mission

Stephen Withers
Friday, 05 December 2008 01:58

Science - Space

The launch of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has been delayed by two years to the northern autumn of 2011. As Scotty used to say, "you cannae change the laws of physics!"

The MSL is a six-wheeled rover that's larger and has a greater range (as much as 20 km or 12 miles) than the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars in 2004. It will carry a range of instruments to analyse soil and rock samples in a search for carbon-based chemicals and to assess the historical martian environment.

Not only will the MSL be able to travel further than Spirit and Opportunity, it will also be capable of negotiating rougher terrain.

The problem is that NASA has determined that it won't be possible to launch the mission by late October 2009.

"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.

The schedule has slipped because testing show it was necessary to re-engineer key parts of the spacecraft, NASA officials explained.

Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program, said "we've reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing."

Once the 2009 launch window closes, it will be another two years before the relative positions of Earth and Mars favour a flight between the two planets.