Mars mission clears hurdle

Phoenix project proceeds despite cost overruns

Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 31, 2007 at midnight

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NASA's Colorado-built Phoenix mission to Mars just dodged a lethal bullet.

Mission leaders survived a "termination review" in Washington, D.C., on Friday and gained approval to proceed toward an August launch despite cost overruns, said lead mission scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.

"It's taken a huge load off of me," Smith said Tuesday. "I've been in agony for months over this."

Phoenix mission costs were supposed to be capped at $386 million.

But unexpected problems cropped up, and Smith said his team will need $10 million to $35 million more.

NASA officials did not indicate Friday just how much extra money they will provide.

"But we were approved to proceed and can continue on our path, and that implies we're going to overspend the original cost cap," Smith said.

The Phoenix spacecraft was built in Jefferson County by Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

Named for the mythical bird reborn from its own ashes, the three-legged Phoenix lander will carry new versions of science instruments destroyed when another Lockheed Martin-built NASA craft, Mars Polar Lander, crashed while landing in late 1999.

The Phoenix cost overruns were caused in part by problems with the craft's radar altimeter. As Phoenix descends toward Mars, the device determines the probe's altitude and velocity.

And selecting a landing site in the northern polar plains is taking longer than expected, adding to mission costs.

The prime candidate site turned out to be rockier than expected.

Last week at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., mission engineers and scientists determined that any of three backup sites would be acceptable, Smith said.

The leading contender, known as Site One, is in a broad, shallow valley at 68 degrees north latitude.

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