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UK Mars Rover Funding Faces Major Cutbacks

Posted on: Monday, 7 July 2008, 14:55 CDT

Britain could soon face a major setback in their involvement in one of the biggest space missions yet, as funding for UK-led experiments on the ExoMars rover and lander is to be cut by 25% in their key development phase.

If researchers cannot find extra funds or reduce costs, some of them are certain to miss the flagship mission.

Professor Steve Schwartz, from Imperial College London, is working on a magnetometer instrument for ExoMars.

"If this sticks, it means for sure that some instruments won't fly; that some groups either won't participate or they won't participate in as many instruments as they planned to,” said Schwartz.

He believes this could result in the UK losing science to some international competitor.

ExoMars is part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Aurora space exploration program.

Teams all across Europe are preparing for the robotic mission, with help from the United States, Canada and Russia. It is set to leave Earth in 2013 and land on the Red Planet in 2014.

The industrial project to construct the rover vehicle and its various sub-systems will not be affected by the cut-backs, of which UK companies continue to have major inputs.

It would specifically impact Britain's contribution to the science ExoMars intends to pursue once it gets down onto the surface of the Red Planet.

A host of instruments that will search for the presence of microbes and also investigate Mars' geology and environment are being developed by British university academics.

That would mean the mission would see UK scientists assume several of the lead, or Principal Investigator, positions on the mission.

But now, these positions are threatened because of a decision to rein back development money. The problem stems from the budget squeeze experienced by the funding agency, which oversees UK astronomy and physics—the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

They’re looking to hold back £80m of savings to balance its 2009-11 budget - and ExoMars lost out in a review process that was held to find the highest priority science endeavors.

The strategic importance of ExoMars was acknowledged in the review, but it was still recommended there be "a reduction of 25% to the planned spending line for ExoMars". STFC rubber-stamped the cut "after receiving no strong arguments against this from the consultation process".

Dr Mark Sims, from Leicester University, who is developing the Life Marker Chip (LMC) instrument for ExoMars, said that wasn’t entirely true, because he put on put at least one strong argument in.
 
"I didn't think it was supposed to be a 'who shouts loudest gets the money' process... but in hindsight, maybe we should have put more responses into the Programmatic Review."

According to Schwartz, the reviewers may have been scared off by the cost of ExoMars, and could have felt the relative science value was therefore not as great as some other projects.

He said the ExoMars is certainly “expensive science”, because the main mission is to look for life.

Therefore, the spacecraft and all its instruments must be prepared so that no Earth contamination is carried to Mars. Such contamination might fool the detectors into falsely thinking they had found Martian organisms.

"Also, it looks expensive because we are right at that phase when everything is being defined and everyone is getting ready to build."

Currently, the whole ExoMars project is still some distance from being finalized. It is not apparent yet precisely how much volume and mass will be available for instruments, both on the rover vehicle itself and in its Humboldt landing tray, a payload of scientific instruments.

Also, ExoMars' final industrial price—the money Europe's aerospace companies will expect to be paid to construct and deliver the mission to Mars' surface—is still in negotiation.

On thing is clear: this flagship venture is going to cost close to double what space ministers first approved in 2005. That is likely to prove problematic for many Esa member states when the next ministerial meeting is held in November.

The UK will have some tough decisions to make.

Right now, the British financial contribution (101m euros) to ExoMars is second only to the Italians. Britain will have to decide whether it wants to maintain that leading position and pick up the rising costs at its current investment rate (17%), or step back from the planetary venture that was supposed to have met all UK objectives.

“UK scientists are about to start an assessment process that would try to refine the exact costs of developing their instruments. This would allow everyone to gauge better the full impact of the 25% cut,” said Sims.

The STFC commented on the situation: "The STFC Review confirms the strategic priority for the UK's role in Aurora and the ExoMars mission and we expect our support for this exciting and important program to continue.

"Any change in support, such as that proposed by [the Programmatic Review], would only apply to the UK's scale of investment in instrumentation for ExoMars and not the UK's contribution to the wider Aurora program, for which we will maintain our agreed commitment, pending the outcome of the Esa Ministerial."

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Image Caption: The ExoMars rover deploying its robotic arm to analyse Martian terrain. ESA - AOES Medialab

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On the Net:

ESA

EADS Astrium

Thales Alenia Space

STFC

STFC Funding Crisis: Astronomy

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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