NASA hoped to launch a new study on Mars. But instead, the agency is considering whether to spend an extra $ 150 million to solve the problem with the spacecraft and re-plan the launch postponed to May 2018. Then Earth and Mars will exactly align with the trajectory, which is good for flight.
“The fact is, I am standing here and talking to you instead of gloating over the phone from the flight control center. Our business is currently not going as well as we would like, ”said project coordinator Bruce Benerdt of the Mars exploration planning team last week.
The launch of the project InSight, which was designed to explore the inner world of Mas, was planned for Friday, March 4. But preparations suddenly stopped at the end of December, after the annoying technical problem with the spacecraft reappeared for the fourth time. It is already too late to start a new range of repairs, so the project and the launch itself in 2016 stopped.
“Everything was almost ready, but suddenly everything went awry,” said Banderdt.
Last week, the team InSight came to the managers of NASA with a proposal to defrost the spacecraft and the entire project.
An additional $ 150 million would have ravaged the project’s current limit of $ 675 million and would probably have delayed other projects. NASA already spent approximately $ 525 million on InSight when work was suspended. “In general, I think we will get a positive response,” said Banderdt.
A decision on whether NASA will resume the mission is expected this week.
The problem with InSight lies in a spherical cavity nine inches in diameter, which rests "on snot". There are sensors on it. They should have made seismic measurements, but there should be an almost perfect vacuum in the entire cavity. This is the problem.
With the data obtained, scientists hope to learn about the core and mantle of Mars, this information is key to understanding the formation and development of the planet.
The cavity has an infinitely small leak — as tiny as Banderdt says, that if a car tire had been pierced at the same level, it would not have been necessary to replace it for three centuries. But the leakage is too high for a seismometer, so it cannot work properly.
“We found out what the problem was,” Banderdt said.
Although a subcontractor in France produced a defect, there is a control system in the laboratory to fix the error.
“I do not blame any particular agency or any particular organization. It really was a system problem. We share all the responsibility with them, ”he said.
The French space agency CNES paid the invoice for additional labor costs.
If the project is resumed again, the renewed InSight spacecraft will be launched on May 5, 2018, and it will arrive in Mars in about 2 years.
