MSL schedule delay? Options

[vjkane]

The most recent Aviation Week and Space Technology (9/8) has the following tidbit in a piece on NASA schedule delays:

"On the robotoic front, the testing schedule for a critical instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory -- dubbed SAM for Sample Analysis at Mars -- may delay launch of the advanced rover from its 2009 planetary window into 2011."

[Burmese]

My initial comments about MSL were intended to focus on that program, and whether NASA was being clear-headed in determining a timetable for a successful mission. My lamentations about the possible empty slot in 2009 were not intended to distract from that topic and I'm sorry if they did.

The worst possible scenario would be to launch in 2009 and have a mission failure that traces back to some subsystem or component that was rushed or not fully tested.

2nd worst would be to cancel the program and at this point I think the media is just playing the "1/2 empty glass" angle to make the news more 'newsworthy'. I would hope and expect that they get MSL to Mars.

Yes, some of the bloom is off and that is partly due to the MER's phenomenal success - there now exists the very real possibility that one or more of the MER's could end up with an operating lifetime on Mars longer than MSL. Back when NASA went to congress for funding things looked nice and orderly - $800m for a couple of rovers designed for at least 90 days and $1.5bn for a nuclear rover to last perhaps 5 years. From here on out, anytime NASA goes to congress with a budget for land assets on Mars that are anything but solar powered they're gonna get grilled on why and the -perception- that any other approach is a boondoggle will be hard to shoot down.