Next Mars Rover Mission on Schedule Even as Cost Rises

By KENNETH CHANG

Despite another overrun that could push its cost to more than $2 billion, NASA’s next-generation Mars rover mission remains on track for launching next fall, NASA officials said Friday.

“Things are going quite well technically,” Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters, said in a telephone news conference.

Because of delays in some components like motors to move the rover’s joints, additional staffing and resources were needed to keep the project on schedule, Dr. McCuistion said.

Officials in NASA’s planetary sciences division met with the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin, on Friday to discuss the status of the mission. Dr. McCuistion said the meeting was regularly scheduled and typical for any of NASA’s flagship missions.

The rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, will be about the size of a small sport utility vehicle and weigh more than 2,000 pounds, much larger and heavier than the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently exploring Mars. While the current rovers carry only about 11 pounds of scientific instruments, the new rover is to carry about 165 pounds of instruments.

When originally approved, the project had a budget of $1.6 billion. Before the latest overrun, costs had already grown to $1.9 billion.

Dr. McCuistion declined to estimate the size of the latest overrun or what effect it might have on other NASA planetary missions. “We haven’t fully resolved that,” he said, but said additional financing would be needed.

“Congress to date has been very supportive,” Dr. McCuistion said. “I fully believe Congress will support us as we go forward.”

In a presentation to the planetary science subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council last week, Dr. McCuistion told panel members that the overrun might be about $100 million, said Sean C. Solomon, chairman of the subcommittee.

Other options that NASA officials have put aside for the moment are delaying the launching by one or two years and canceling the mission altogether.