Cost Overruns Keep Dawn On The Ground

NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which was to be launched this summer on a mission to explore two of the solar system's largest asteroids, will remain on the ground while the agency struggles with cost overruns and technical issues with the program.

Mission planners had actually been ordered to halt work on the probe last fall, according to the Associated Press, pending an independent review of the program. Those findings should be presented to NASA January 27.

Even if the project is given the green light, however, it would take at least another year to run final tests and prepare the spacecraft for launch, according to the University of California's Christopher Russell, who is principal investigator on the mission.

"It's like running a relay race," Russell said. "You're on your last leg and the judges suddenly say 'Stop.' You lose your momentum."

Dawn is part of NASA's Discovery program, which was originally conceived to explore the solar system on a relatively inexpensive budget. The successful Stardust mission, which just ended last week, is also part of Discovery.

Unlike Stardust, the Dawn program (which advertises "The Asteroid Belt at Your Fingertips" on its NASA website) has suffered several setbacks -- including ruptured fuel tanks that forced engineers to make due with lower levels of xenon gas to fuel the probe's anticipated nine-year journey to Ceres and Vesta. Both asteroids are in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

Originally, the program's cost was capped at $371 million, according to Russell. When project scientists went looking for another $40 million, NASA ordered the stand down to find out why.

FMI: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/