[extropy-chat] Nasa Reinstates Dawn Mission

[deimtee]

Looks like good news for Amara.  : )





<http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_06108_Dawn_reinstates.html>   
NEWS RELEASES

Erica Hupp/Dean Acosta
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-1237/1400


    March 27, 2006
RELEASE: 06-108

NASA Reinstates the Dawn Mission

NASA senior management announced a decision Monday to reinstate the Dawn 
mission, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids. Dawn had been 
canceled because of technical problems and cost overruns.

The mission, named because it was designed to study objects dating from 
the dawn of the solar system, would travel to Vesta and Ceres, two of 
the largest asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn 
will use an electric ion propulsion system and orbit multiple objects.

The mission originally was approved in December 2001 and was set for 
launch in June 2006. Technical problems and other difficulties delayed 
the projected launch date to July 2007 and pushed the cost from its 
original estimate of $373 million to $446 million. The decision to 
cancel Dawn was made March 2, 2006, after about $257 million already had 
been spent. An additional expenditure of about $14 million would have 
been required to terminate the project.

The reinstatement resulted from a review process that is part of new 
management procedures established by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. 
The process is intended to help ensure open debate and thorough 
evaluation of major decisions regarding space exploration and agency 
operations.

"We revisited a number of technical and financial challenges and the 
work being done to address them," said NASA Associate Administrator Rex 
Geveden, who chaired the review panel. "Our review determined the 
project team has made substantive progress on many of this mission's 
technical issues, and, in the end, we have confidence the mission will 
succeed."

The Dawn decision document will be available on the Web at:   
http://www.nasa.gov/formedia


-deimtee