NASA kills off troubled asteroid mission
Kimm Groshong
New Scientist Space
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The Dawn mission to study two of the solar system's largest main-belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres, has been cancelled, NASA confirmed on Friday.
The mission had been in development for more than four years. "As of Thursday we did make the decision to cancel Dawn," says Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA's planetary science division. In the end, the decision was not based on the quality of the mission's science, he told New Scientist: "It was based on fiscal responsibility.
"The axing of the mission came about a month after the agency completed an extensive review of progress. In October 2005, NASA had ordered Dawn managers to stop work, citing excessive technical problems and a budget overrun.Dantzler says the independent review board estimated the mission would come in about 20% over-budget, at a total cost of about $446 million.
But there was significant uncertainty in that estimate stemming from 29 major issues, mostly technical, which the investigation board said would have to be resolved before Dawn could proceed.
Mar 04, 2006
Kimm Groshong
New Scientist Space
______________
The Dawn mission to study two of the solar system's largest main-belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres, has been cancelled, NASA confirmed on Friday.
The mission had been in development for more than four years. "As of Thursday we did make the decision to cancel Dawn," says Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA's planetary science division. In the end, the decision was not based on the quality of the mission's science, he told New Scientist: "It was based on fiscal responsibility.
"The axing of the mission came about a month after the agency completed an extensive review of progress. In October 2005, NASA had ordered Dawn managers to stop work, citing excessive technical problems and a budget overrun.Dantzler says the independent review board estimated the mission would come in about 20% over-budget, at a total cost of about $446 million.
But there was significant uncertainty in that estimate stemming from 29 major issues, mostly technical, which the investigation board said would have to be resolved before Dawn could proceed.
Mar 04, 2006
