NASA's head of Mars exploration has warned that future Mars sample return missions will be hard hit by the agency's budget squeeze. The twin Mars Rover mission due for launch next year is already under threat, with the possibility that one rover will be dropped.
Orlando Figuero, NASA's Mars exploration programme manager, says the biggest fear, however, is that up to 10 Mars sample return missions - needed in order to return an adequate amount of Mars material - are impossible in the current economic climate. The first such mission is unlikely to be flown until 2012. It was originally scheduled for 2005.
Meanwhile, despite facing the budget axe in 2003, a NASA-led team is pressing ahead with the New Horizons mission to Pluto, its moon Charon and the Kuiper Belt of objects beyond Pluto. If a launch is approved for 2006, the Pluto-Kuiper Belt (PKB) mission would arrive in 2015 due to a newly devised gravity-assist fly-by of Jupiter in 2007.
The earlier the PKB mission leaves the Earth, the better the sunlight conditions at Pluto. Earlier arrival will also save propellants which can be used for the Kuiper Belt phase.
The project has been pegged at $488 million and the NASA science team hopes that money can be squeezed from other areas in the final budget.
Analysis of Mars Global Surveyor coverage of an area between 7-12¡N and 153-157¡E of the planet indicate that up to 600 km3 of water "recently" flooded the area, says the University of Arizona. NASA is also celebrating the success of the first scientific observations of Mars by the orbiting Mars Odyssey, which indicate the presence of hydrogen within a metre under the surface of the southern hemisphere. A full map of Martian surface elements will be created in the 900 day-plus, $300 million Odyssey mission.Source: Flight International
