ISS Cost Overruns Claim Another Victim

Decision reversed - full report later today

DEEP IMPACT

ISS Overruns Claim Another Victim As Arecibo Radar Project Shutdown

not even the scraps from $13 billion are enough to keep the Arecibo Asteroid program alive

Washington - Dec 20, 2001
NASA has notified Don Campbell, Associate Director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center at Arecibo and Head of the Radar Astronomy Group, that all funding for Arecibo radar studies will be terminated on January 1. The large Arecibo dish is used to characterize the surface properties and shapes of asteroids having orbits that bring them close to Earth.

It has recently discovered a satellite around one of them, which provides information about the asteroid's interior structure. Arecibo radar measurements provide the most precise orbits for these objects, from which the best assessment of their hazard to the Earth can be made.

The research is part of NASA's program to identify, by 2008, all objects larger than 1 km with near-Earth orbits and to characterize a portion of them. The U.S. Congress mandated this program several years ago.

NASA currently funds a number of search and follow-up programs to find these near-Earth objects and to determine their orbits. With no additional funding to meet the Congressional mandate, NASA has carved $3.55M out of other portions of its planetary astronomy research and analysis program in FY2002.

The Arecibo program is unique in the precision of its measurements and its ability to characterize these targets, but pressure from increasing costs in the search and recovery programs required to meet the 2008 deadline, with no increase in funding for the program to do the job, has caused NASA to cannibalize other programs.

Arecibo is the latest victim.

NASA has invested $11M in the Arecibo facility to upgrade it for carrying out radar studies of solar system objects as distant as the moons of Saturn (in support of the Cassini mission), but now has no funding to make the observations.

NASA research programs have been level-funded over the past decade while costs have increased and new research programs have been inserted.

The agency has recently committed to increase funds for its research programs at the rate of inflation and provide some new funding for astrobiology. In such a constrained fiscal environment, NASA says that asteroid characterization "may have to take a back seat" to NEO search and recovery because it "can no longer do everything it is supposed to do".

In the meantime, the rest of NASA's observational astronomy program and mission support suffer and a substantial investment in a national facility is abandoned.

The Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society believes that the Arecibo program should not be terminated to meet an arbitrary deadline.

The Congressional language says that these goals should be achieved "to the extent practicable" not at all costs. The NASA NEO search program is already making excellent progress.

In the long term we call on the Administration to work with the Congress to increase the resources for non-astrobiology research programs in NASA Space Science as they provide the knowledge base on which our solar system exploration efforts rely.

Radar Images from last week's Asteroid Flyby of Earth

ASTEROIDS

JPL Scans Asteroid Moon During Earth Flyby

Pasadena - May 30, 2001
The clearest radar pictures of a near-Earth double asteroid system were taken by astronomers last week using the Goldstone 70-meter dish in the Mojave Desert. A team of astronomers captured a complete revolution of the moon as the pair came within five million kilometers of Earth last Friday.

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.