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BepiColombo Status
Guest_AlexBlackwell_*
post Dec 1 2005, 12:11 AM
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Excerpt from a News article by Jenny Hogan in the December 1, 2005, issue of Nature:

"The [funding] situation has led to speculation that BepiColombo, a mission destined for a 2013 launch to Mercury, might be cancelled. 'That is the big danger painted in the sky,' says Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, principal investigator on one of the instruments proposed for the spacecraft.

"Nerves were set jangling about the project, which also involves the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, after it was postponed because the initial design was too heavy. That problem seems to have been solved, but officials say the estimated cost of the mission, at 600 million [euros] to 650 million [euros], is still more than 100 million [euros] above target."

Reference:

Europe's cash crisis puts space plans under threat
Jenny Hogan
Nature 438, 542-543 (2005)
doi:10.1038/438542a
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Mariner9
post Jul 6 2008, 06:44 AM
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Tough to predict. Bepi-Colombo's roots go way back into the mid-90s , and it also has JAXA as an international partner building an entirely separate orbiter from the ESA planetary orbiter. I think one of the things that saved Cassini from cancellation in the early 90s was the Huygens probe being built by ESA. NASA was reluctant to back out of the project with the commitment they had made to ESA.

So it seems that there are many factors influencing this decision.

One of the things not mentioned in the article was the Exo-Mars mission, also slated for a 2013 launch window. I've wondered for a long time if having two big ticket planetary missions with the same schedule would pose a problem on budgets. And like Bepi-Colombo, the Exo-Mars budget has gone up a few times. IIRC the cost estimate on that one started around 600 million Euros, and has gone up around 1 Billion in the last six months.

However, the way ESA gets money is more complex than the NASA model. I get the impression that each project is funded by separate contributions from each contributing partner nation. So it may be that Bepi-Colombo and Exo-Mars will never compete with each other for funds, at least not directly.
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vjkane
post Jul 6 2008, 11:01 PM
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QUOTE (Mariner9 @ Jul 6 2008, 06:44 AM) *
However, the way ESA gets money is more complex than the NASA model. I get the impression that each project is funded by separate contributions from each contributing partner nation. So it may be that Bepi-Colombo and Exo-Mars will never compete with each other for funds, at least not directly.

I suspect that the experience of cost over runs on both ExoMars and Bepi-Colombo will make ESA more cautious in scoping and selecting future planetary missions. Problems once development is underway is fairly common for all space agencies, it seems. If memory serves me correctly though, both of these experienced large cost increases fairly early in the process. Anyone have a better memory than I?


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- AlexBlackwell   BepiColombo Status   Dec 1 2005, 12:11 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   B.C. seems to be out of danger for the moment. ht...   Dec 12 2005, 09:25 PM
|- - AlexBlackwell   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Dec 12 2005, 09:25 PM)B....   Dec 15 2005, 09:33 PM
- - Mariner9   Well I sure hope so. BepiColombo is the European...   Dec 13 2005, 06:26 PM
- - peter59   Don't be astonished. It's typical for ESA ...   Dec 13 2005, 10:34 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   The Dec. 5 Aviation Week (published prior to the c...   Dec 15 2005, 03:14 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   That Aviation Week article adds that LISA is also ...   Dec 16 2005, 04:36 AM
|- - The Messenger   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Dec 15 2005, 09:36 PM)Th...   Jan 30 2006, 06:54 PM
|- - jamescanvin   QUOTE (The Messenger @ Jan 31 2006, 05:54 AM)...   Jan 30 2006, 11:27 PM
|- - ljk4-1   MERCURY RISING - The SIXS Instrument By Finnish A...   Feb 16 2006, 02:29 PM
- - AlexBlackwell   From the January 30, 2006, issue of Aviation Week ...   Jan 30 2006, 06:25 PM
- - Mariner9   The article at Spacedaily states that the spacecra...   Feb 17 2006, 05:32 PM
|- - AlexBlackwell   QUOTE (Mariner9 @ Feb 17 2006, 05:32 PM) ...   Feb 17 2006, 05:41 PM
|- - AlexBlackwell   QUOTE (AlexBlackwell @ Feb 17 2006, 05:41...   Feb 17 2006, 10:16 PM
- - AlexBlackwell   A couple of tidbits from, respectively, the Februa...   Feb 12 2007, 06:21 PM
- - Rakhir   ESA gives go-ahead to build BepiColombo http://ww...   Feb 26 2007, 12:17 PM
|- - ustrax   Onward to Mercury! Some details about the miss...   Mar 16 2007, 11:05 AM
- - AlexBlackwell   I forgot to mention this at the time, but below is...   May 4 2007, 01:18 AM
|- - ustrax   Cool!...   Oct 17 2007, 01:34 PM
- - stevesliva   Very interesting! I didn't realize that t...   Oct 17 2007, 10:03 PM
- - nprev   Yes...an ingenious mission profile to be sure. No ...   Oct 18 2007, 03:36 AM
- - djellison   Was there ever one planned...I don't remember ...   Oct 18 2007, 06:30 AM
- - mchan   There was a small (Beagle-sized) lander proposed. ...   Oct 19 2007, 09:19 AM
|- - centsworth_II   QUOTE (mchan @ Oct 19 2007, 05:19 AM) The...   Oct 19 2007, 02:42 PM
|- - GravityWaves   QUOTE (centsworth_II @ Oct 19 2007, 11:42...   Jan 21 2008, 09:04 AM
- - K-P   Any plans of using for example MMO -probe as a cra...   Oct 28 2007, 09:15 PM
- - tasp   IIRC, tendency of solar perturbations on an initia...   Oct 29 2007, 03:20 AM
- - mhall   It seems that the contract is now signed! htt...   Jan 18 2008, 03:19 PM
- - mgrodzki   for those of us too lazy to do the research… what ...   Jan 19 2008, 02:07 PM
- - dvandorn   As far as I know, the people designing Bepi-Columb...   Jan 19 2008, 05:10 PM
- - mgrodzki   i know there have been issues with BC, but i was u...   Jan 19 2008, 08:28 PM
|- - ugordan   BepiColombo will not be able to go to the outer so...   Jan 19 2008, 08:43 PM
- - djellison   Was anyone bugged when Mars Odyssey went after MGS...   Jan 19 2008, 08:59 PM
- - mgrodzki   i would assume that mission managers have their re...   Jan 20 2008, 02:38 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (mgrodzki @ Jan 20 2008, 02:38 PM) ...   Jan 20 2008, 02:41 PM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE for those of us too lazy to do the research…...   Jan 21 2008, 11:37 AM
- - Mariner9   I see your point about wanting there to be a balan...   Jan 20 2008, 10:54 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Well, the different missions carry different instr...   Jan 21 2008, 12:46 AM
|- - ugordan   If you ask me this has become rather absurd. Look ...   Jan 21 2008, 08:43 AM
- - mps   Money was at least one important issue. Not only d...   Jan 21 2008, 10:45 AM
- - mps   Ustrax, spaceEurope says that MESSENGER's cove...   Jan 21 2008, 01:21 PM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE (mps @ Jan 21 2008, 01:21 PM) Ustra...   Jan 21 2008, 02:14 PM
- - Greg Hullender   So you think it's just a translation issue? T...   Jan 21 2008, 02:31 PM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE (Greg Hullender @ Jan 21 2008, 02:3...   Jan 21 2008, 02:52 PM
|- - PaulM   A story of interest to UK members of UMSF.COM has ...   Mar 4 2008, 06:37 PM
- - vjkane   BEPICOLOMBO NARROWLY AVOIDS CANCELLATION By PETER...   Jul 5 2008, 05:06 PM
- - peter59   Interesting quotes: "A majority of the membe...   Jul 6 2008, 06:21 AM
- - Mariner9   Tough to predict. Bepi-Colombo's roots go w...   Jul 6 2008, 06:44 AM
|- - vjkane   QUOTE (Mariner9 @ Jul 6 2008, 06:44 AM) H...   Jul 6 2008, 11:01 PM
- - Paolo   There is a nice picture of the BepiColombo Magneto...   Nov 28 2010, 07:59 PM
- - ZLD   Is the mission back on then? Last I had heard, it...   Nov 29 2010, 02:08 AM
- - Paolo   It has been approved in a modified (and much more ...   Nov 29 2010, 06:19 AM
- - ZLD   Thats quite fantastic to hear and a surprising tur...   Nov 29 2010, 07:24 AM
- - Paolo   BepiColombo's Mercury orbiter undergoing therm...   Aug 22 2011, 05:28 PM
- - djellison   It's not actually BC that's undergoing the...   Aug 22 2011, 08:47 PM
- - Paolo   anybody has a detailed timeline of BepiColombo (fl...   Sep 10 2012, 12:12 PM
- - cndwrld   The information I have is on this other ESA page h...   Sep 12 2012, 10:17 AM
|- - Paolo   QUOTE (cndwrld @ Sep 12 2012, 12:17 PM) T...   Sep 12 2012, 05:01 PM
|- - Doug M.   QUOTE (cndwrld @ Sep 12 2012, 11:17 AM) 1...   Sep 23 2012, 03:41 PM
|- - MarcF   QUOTE (Doug M. @ Sep 23 2012, 03:41 PM) S...   Sep 23 2012, 03:54 PM
- - Hungry4info   MESSENGER had three Mercury flybys.   Sep 23 2012, 03:54 PM
- - Gsnorgathon   Plus two Venus flybys.   Sep 23 2012, 04:28 PM
|- - Doug M.   You're right! My bad. I seem to have con...   Sep 23 2012, 04:32 PM
- - Paolo   looks like BepiColombo has been delayed again... t...   Dec 29 2013, 08:46 PM
- - Explorer1   Eight flybys! Now that's a record for sure...   Dec 30 2013, 12:19 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (Explorer1 @ Dec 29 2013, 04:19 PM)...   Dec 30 2013, 01:07 AM
|- - dtolman   Lander? Wasn't that cancelled before it was ev...   Dec 30 2013, 03:50 AM
- - Explorer1   Yes, I've know of MESSENGER's possible ext...   Dec 30 2013, 04:09 AM
- - machi   QUOTE (Explorer1 @ Dec 30 2013, 01:19 AM)...   Dec 30 2013, 10:57 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (machi @ Dec 30 2013, 02:57 AM) (ME...   Dec 30 2013, 02:48 PM
- - machi   Sorry, I wrote that poorly. I meant that BepiColom...   Dec 30 2013, 02:59 PM
- - Explorer1   Hardware testing for the vacuum of space has now b...   Jan 5 2015, 07:08 PM
- - Doug M.   Does anyone know what the current estimate is for ...   Apr 2 2015, 06:16 PM
- - Paolo   according to this ESA release: QUOTE Nevertheless...   Apr 2 2015, 06:49 PM
- - Explorer1   Just like Dawn's flexible arrival at Ceres. An...   Apr 2 2015, 06:58 PM
- - rboerner   Will BepiColombo perform any scientific observatio...   May 28 2015, 07:49 PM
|- - Gladstoner   QUOTE (rboerner @ May 28 2015, 01:49 PM) ...   May 29 2015, 06:46 AM
- - katodomo   The wishlist has already been laid out http://ww...   May 29 2015, 05:42 PM
- - bobik   BepiColombo launch moved to October 2018 -- new fl...   Dec 10 2016, 02:57 PM
- - Explorer1   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbZ0YmTrrMk Very ...   Jul 7 2017, 02:44 AM
- - bobik   I wonder if the star trackers of the BepiColombo s...   Jul 7 2017, 01:25 PM
- - bobik   That's cool. The MTM has not one, but three en...   Feb 23 2018, 01:21 PM
- - punkboi   Help give JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbite...   Apr 5 2018, 04:43 AM
- - bobik   A set of new images about the preparation of BepiC...   Jul 14 2018, 06:26 PM
- - Explorer1   Another (very cute) animated short about the three...   Oct 16 2018, 01:19 PM


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