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WASHINGTON – The government's five-week shutdown earlier this year, which had delayed elements of other NASA missions, may have provided a reprieve for a disturbed instrument during the next mission of the NASA. organism on Mars.
During a presentation to the Astrobiology and Global Science Committee of the National Academies, Ken Farley, Project Scientist for the March 2020 Rover, said that NASA had asked the mission last December to conduct a "cessation / continuation" analysis for Habitable Scanning Environments. with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC), one of the instruments of the rover.
"There was a combination of technical challenges and high cost risks, which meant that the exact cost of the instrument was not yet clear because technical challenges had not yet been overcome, "he said.
This review was originally scheduled for early January, he said, but was delayed by the five-week partial closure of the government that began on Dec. 22, restricting all of the government's activities. agency, with the exception of essential activities. The examination finally took place in late January and early February, after the end of the closure.
"We have actually been able to make a lot of progress to solve some of the technical problems" during this period, Farley said. Following this review, NASA executives asked the mission to continue SHERLOC's development by making "relatively minor changes to the procedures used to minimize cost growth and schedule risks."
Farley added that the mission was looking for instruments to reduce its capabilities, but also its technical risks and cost. "Basically, nothing obvious could be done," he said.
The instrument, mounted on the arm of the rover, carries a set of spectrometers, a camera and a laser to study the Martian rocks. Scientists plan to use this instrument to search for minerals or organic matter that may be evidence of past Martian life.
Farley, speaking by teleconference from the committee, said the laser spectrometer component of the instrument should be delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory this summer to be integrated with the spacecraft. There are however backup plans, including allowing the instrument to be installed on the rover after its expedition to Cape Canaveral, Florida, next January for a launch in July 2020.
He did not explain in detail the problem of the instrument but said that it concerned a high voltage power source for his laser. "If I could send a message to the scientific community, it is to think deeply about high-voltage power supplies on Mars, because they represent a real problem for us," he said. "Mars is a terrible environment for such tensions, so we have problems with bow."
SHERLOC is one of the reasons given by NASA to explain the cost overruns of the mission. The agency, in its budget request for the full fiscal year for fiscal year 2020, dated March 18, stated that the problems associated with another instrument, the Planetary Instrument for X-ray lithochemistry, as well as the mobile sample caching system resulted in increased costs for the mission.
NASA has not provided more details on this cost growth. At a NASA public meeting at the 50th Lunar and Global Conference on March 18, Lori Glaze, director of NASA's global science division, said that cost growth was less than 15 percent of total cost $ 2.1 billion plus $ 300 million for his first Martian. year of operation – and that the costs would be largely charged to other parts of the overall March program. The agency's operational plan for the 2019 fiscal year, which has not yet been published, will contain details of these costs.
Other aspects of the mission are doing well. The thermal shield that will protect the rover when it entered the Martian atmosphere had to be rebuilt after cracking of the original unit during last year 's tests. "The new version is on schedule," he said. Delivery is scheduled for this summer. The mechanical actuators of various parts of the rover, components that have caused problems for the development of the Curiosity rover, have all been delivered to JPL.
A key element of the Mars 2020 mission will be to cache samples of Martian rocks and soils for return to Earth by future missions. As planning begins for these future missions, Farley said there was reason to re-examine what Mars 2020 would do with these samples.
Previous planning provided that the mobile would leave the container samples on the surface as they moved, which would require that a subsequent mission retrieve them with its own mobile. Farley said the mission now plans to revert to its initial plans to transport the cached samples to the mobile.
"We have discussions with the group of people who are thinking about how to do it," he said of planning the collection and return of samples. "In particular, how can Mars 2020 best manage its cache of samples? Is it better to leave them at the same place or in several places or have the samples on board and possibly participate in a transfer? "
Farely adds that there is no urgency to choosing a method of caching samples. "The beauty of this design is that none of these things matter anymore, because the hardware is capable of combining the transport of everything, of putting everything flat or splitting it," he said. . "We do not have to engage in one way or another essentially until we put them on or we do not do it when we are on Mars."
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