MSL schedule delay? |
MSL schedule delay? |
Sep 9 2008, 08:10 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
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." -------------------- |
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Sep 10 2008, 06:19 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 8-May 05 Member No.: 381 |
I read that same tidbit. It'll be interesting to see if anything is said about it at next week's MSL Landing Site Workshop. It's a little hard to believe NASA would spend something like 100 million dollars extra to delay launch two years for the sake of one instrument. Maybe a somewhat degraded version of SAM could be readied sooner.
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Sep 10 2008, 06:34 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
It's a little hard to believe NASA would spend something like 100 million dollars extra to delay launch two years for the sake of one instrument. Maybe a somewhat degraded version of SAM could be readied sooner. SAM is in many ways the heart of MSL. Without it, MSL cannot search for signs of past or present life. Unfortunately, this is probably a show stopper, although reduced capability is always possible. From the way the notice was stated, it sounds like it may be the mechanical handling of the samples that's the problem. Perhaps fall out from the sample handling problems of Phoenix. Anyway, here's a summary of SAM's goals: "The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite will take up more than half the science payload on board the Mars Science Laboratory rover and feature chemical equipment found in many scientific laboratories on Earth. Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Sample Analysis at Mars will search for compounds of the element carbon, including methane, that are associated with life and explore ways in which they are generated and destroyed in the martian ecosphere." more at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/sc_instru_sam.html -------------------- |
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