Neither Can Afford To Go It Alone

Budget constraints are pushing NASA to consider a joint Mars exploration venture with Europe, and by 2016, the US may join forces with the European Space Agency for future Mars trips. The move would signal a significant shift in NASA policy.

Last month, NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said he believed a joint venture was the best solution to achieving shared science goals "if we can lose a little bit of our ego and nationalism."

Funding is the primary issue for both agencies. NASA had to severally cut its technology spending and reduce its future Mars vision to pay for the $2.3 billion next-generation, nuclear-powered rover.  That after delaying the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory to 2011. As for the Europeans, they lack the Euros to send up ExoMars, a new rover scheduled to launch in 2016. NASA is trying to determine how to help Europe land on Mars, while sending up its own less capable orbiter in the same launch window.

In an AP report appearing in The Los Angeles Times, Doug McCuistion, leader of NASA's Mars exploration program, said "That's a difficult partnership because we had an existing mission and they had an existing mission and to merge two existing missions is challenging. Frankly, we have backed off quite a bit on our mission requirements. They've backed off somewhat."  One of the things to be determined is who would pay for the launch vehicle that would carry both payloads.

NASA has successfully partnered with other space agencies in the past, and has plans for more in the future, but they're more in the arena of deep-space missions.  NASA worked with the European and Italian space agencies to launch the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moon Titan. And earlier this year, NASA and the ESA they would be partners on a 2020 mission to Europa.

But when it came to Mars, NASA has maintained a go-it-alone posture, but has also allowed other countries to add instruments to NASA spacecraft for their own data-gathering. A proposal to collaborate on a mission to Mars reflects a budget reality. The costs for a Mars mission, particularly one in which a primary goal is returning Martian rocks and soil to Earth for study, has gotten too high, the agencies say. The estimated price tag for the mission is $5 billion.

FMI www.nasa.gov, www.esa.int