NASA: lost in space?

Will recent failures doom America's space program?

Remember the "chance of a lifetime" trip to Mars we told you about in September (see SW 9/3/93, p. 8)? Well . . . we wrote that when the Mars Observer was nearing its destination. The planetary probe was programmed to send back detailed data on Mars' weather, atmosphere, water, and soil--stuff you'd need to know before you took off.

But on August 21--just days before the Observer was to go into Mars orbit--ground controllers lost contact with the probe. So, for the latest info about our planetary neighbor, we suggest you read the September article again ... and again ... and again....

If that sounds frustrating, imagine how the scientists who worked on the Observer feel. "Mars is still there, and the interesting questions about the planet are still there, but we can't get at them," says atmospheric scientist Andrew Ingersoll. At least, not until NASA can plan another mission.

The opportunity to send spacecraft to Mars comes only once every two years, when Mars and Earth are properly oriented in their orbits. The next chance will be late in 1994, but NASA officials have decided against trying for a launch them. They don't have the money and they don't want to plan a new mission in haste.

NASA does have duplicates of all the Observer's instruments, but officials say launching an "Observer II" would be too chancy--especially considering they still do not know what went wrong with the first one. Instead, NASA will probably aim for a 1996 launch, perhaps dividing the Observer instruments among smaller, cheaper spacecraft.

THE BOTTOM LINE

NASA has bounced back from failure before, after the tragic explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, for example. But space watchers say the agency's ability to do so--and to get funding from Congress--might be slipping with its track record.

In the past year alone, more than 13 space shuttle flights were delayed, several attempts to free a stuck antenna on the Galileo space probe failed, and one weather satellite went dead (ironically, on the same day the Mars Observer fell silent).

If NASA doesn't produce some good news soon, big projects like the $40 billion space station Freedom (see SW 1/15/93) may never get off the ground.

The "make-or-break" mission could be the one that is going on right now, as we write this article. Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor are attempting to fix an earlier NASA flaw--the blurred vision of the Hubble Space Telescope (see SW 11/2/90, p. 14). You'll know by the time you get this magazine whether that mission was successful.

But what about NASA as a whole? Are the risks of space exploration part of the price we pay for discovery? Think about it as you read the debate (right). Then decide.