The disappearance of the Mars Lander Probe marks the most recent failure NASA has experienced. It was only 10 weeks ago that the Polar Lander's sibling spacecraft, the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter, got lost in space. NASA failures date back to the early '90s. In 1993, the Mars Observer disappeared just before commencing its orbit around the Red Planet. That project was worth a total of $1 billion.
The loss of the Polar Lander is especially troublesome for NASA, considering that upcoming missions to Mars were set to use the same equipment. "We made them as identical as possible to save money," said Sylvia Miller, one of the designers of the craft. This craft has been used as a generic model for the other missions set to go in 2001 and 2003. Therefore, the loss of this craft raises problems, in light of the fact that NASA is already working with a tight budget.
NASA has complained that its costs for this project have been constricted, leaving very little breathing room for the addition of proper equipment that might better ensure successful missions. However, even with the budget problem, this program has lost an estimated $1.485 billion on these three failed missions.
Experts in the program work feverishly to find out what went wrong with the most recent mission, which cost $360 million. However, they are facing many difficulties in gathering the data necessary to make a judgment.
When NASA sent the Lander on its mission with its two microprobes, they were expecting that the Lander would arrive on the surface of the Red Planet and begin searching for water in the Martian soil and study its atmosphere. The Lander was also equipped with a microphone that was to send back transmissions form Mars for the very first time.
NASA lost contact with the probe just before it set down on the planet's surface. Because the two microprobes lost contact as well, there is little hope that any information as to the disappearance of the Lander and its probes will ever be found.
"It may be that everything went right and it simply landed in a terrible spot," said physics professor Robert Park. "Who knows if it landed on a big boulder and fell over? We just don't know, and we never will, is my guess," added the University of Maryland expert on the space program.
In the coming days, a full-length investigation will commence on the disappearance of the space probe. Already, there are reactions as to what contributed to the loss. Robert Zurek, a project scientist for the mission, said that understaffing could be a major factor. "It's a matter of staffing, really: Did we try to do too much with too few people?"
NASA officials are contemplating an overhaul of the program in order to be more efficient in staff and costs. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said, "Clearly something is wrong, and we have to understand it. It is conceivable that we will completely change our approach…everything is on the table."
