O'Keefe: New NASA to be 'Distinctively Different' than Old Agency By Leonard David [Full Text] PASADENA, Calif. -- Tension runs high again at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as the Mars Opportunity rover draws closer to the red planet. Even with the successful Spirit landing three weeks ago, Opportunity’s plunge to Meridiani Planum on Mars remains a high-risk business.
"It’s my guess that the pucker-factor is going to be every bit as high," said NASA Administrator, Sean O’Keefe, who has arrived here to witness the rover’s entry, descent and landing. "This is the equivalent to the Super Bowl for these people."
O’Keefe showed a bit of his superstitious nature, noting that he’s wearing the exact same attire as he did for Spirit’s landing.
"Success is an objective we seek each and every mission…but also recognize that the risk of every one of these is an uncertain condition," O’Keefe said.
Future Mars plans to be unveiled
Looking toward the future, O’Keefe told SPACE.com that the soon-to-be-released NASA budget will augment Mars exploration plans, making them more in step with President George W. Bush’s new space exploration agenda.
Details within NASA’s budget for 2005 are to be unveiled on February 3.
Mars exploration, both robotic and human, will receive a coordinated boost given the White House push to move NASA beyond low Earth orbit, O’Keefe said. What is going to be "distinctively different" is integrating missions and objectives, as well as adding missions to achieve "a broader exploration agenda," he said.
International cooperation
This March in Montreal, the International Space Station partners will meet. That gathering will also explore what space cooperation might be feasible in future years, including joint collaboration in exploring space beyond low Earth orbit.
"There’s a real enthusiasm" in the International Space Station partners, regarding a broader exploration agenda, O’Keefe remarked. "I think there are some really exciting opportunities."
"I don’t expect to see firm decisions where all of a sudden we’re going to come up with 23,000 new ideas of what we’re going to do for the next 15 years together. But I think it’ll be the beginnings of having a different debate and opening up the range of discussion wider," O’Keefe told SPACE.com .
Hubble decision
The NASA Administrator also fielded questions regarding his decision to abandon in place the Hubble Space Telescope -- canceling a future servicing mission to the orbiting observatory.
Hubble is expected to continue operating at least through the 2007-2008 time period.
The plan now is to have an autonomous vehicle rendezvous with, dock to, then de-orbit Hubble into the Earth’s atmosphere, O’Keefe said. The huge observatory would then breakup and splatter into a select ocean impact zone.
"This was an extremely difficult decision", one that was a "very close call’, and one that was a "gut wrenching" judgment. "It was one based on risk, exclusively," he said.
No safe haven
The NASA chief said that his agency intends to follow the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) recommendations -- brought about by the tragic loss of a space shuttle crew now nearly a year ago.
There is far too much risk in a Hubble servicing mission, given its different inclination of orbit than the space station. Shuttle flight to Hubble would be "a one-of-a-kind, unique, very different, and riskier mission", O’Keefe said.
"On my call, exclusively…that’s not a risk that I could deem to be an acceptable one," O’Keefe concluded.
By flying a Hubble servicing mission with a shuttle, there would be no possible detour to the International Space Station. The station is now considered a "safe haven" in the event that a shuttle was damaged on liftoff, or in orbit, and could not be inspected and possibly fixed for a safe return to Earth. [End]