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The
spacecraft, a satellite known as InSight, was designed to study
the deep interior of Mars, information that will help scientists
figure out how the planet, and other rocky planets such as
Earth, formed and evolved.
The space agency said it was reviewing how much the repair would
cost, but the project’s lead scientist last week estimated the
price tag would be about $150 million above the $675 million
already budgeted.
InSight missed its launch opportunity in March after scientists
in December discovered that a pesky leak in its main science
instrument had re-appeared.
That setback raised questions about whether NASA would cancel
the mission. But agency managers said on Wednesday that the
science goals were compelling and the plans for repairing the
leak were sound.
The next time Earth and Mars will be properly aligned for
InSight to launch is in May 2018. The spacecraft would arrive at
Mars in November 2018 to begin a two-year mission.
The primary instrument is a seismometer with sensors that need
to be suspended in near vacuum conditions so that they can make
measurements as small as the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
The nine-inch (22-cm) spherical chamber holding the sensors has
a tiny leak, so small that if a car tire leaked at that rate it
could go three centuries without needing additional air, project
scientist Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, said during a March 2 presentation to the
Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group.
But even that leak rate is too high for the seismometer to work
properly, so NASA grounded the mission for review.
Spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin said InSight would be stored
in a facility near Denver while the seismometer instrument was
repaired.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Seattle; Editing by Colleen Jenkins
and Grant McCool)
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