WASHINGTON (cnn) - launch of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory - hampered by technical problems and overruns - has been delayed until autumn 2011, NASA said in a Thursday press conference in Washington.
An illustration of a photo of a vehicle equipped with a laser which is defined as part of the Mars Science Laboratory.
The mission had been planned for launch in autumn 2009.
March Science Laboratory is a large rover, nuclear-powered, designed for long distances with a series of onboard scientific instruments on board.
It is, according to the NASA Web site, "an effort long term exploration robotic" set up to study environmental history in early March"and to assess whether March was never - or - capable of supporting life.
The delay in the launch, according to NASA, is due to a number of "the testing and equipment challenges (yet) required to ensure the success of the mission.".
"Advances in recent weeks does are not come quite quickly on the resolution of the technical challenges and gathering material," said Charles Elachi, Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California.
Amendment to a 2011 launch "will be for the careful resolution of any technical problems remaining, appropriate and thorough testing and avoid a mad to launch," argued the NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler.
The overall cost of the March Science Lab is now expected to more than $ 2.1 billion, according to the spokesman of the NASA Dwayne Browne. The project to the origin of a tag price of $ 1.6 billion.
All of the budget for the current fiscal year, according to Browne, of NASA is about $ 15 billion.
According to NASA, March rover will use new technologies and be designed to explore the greater distances more rough than previous global missions field. This will be achieved in part by using a new system of propulsion of surface.
"Failure is not an option on this mission," said Weiler. "The science is too important and the investment of American taxpayers $ requires us to be absolutely certain that we have done everything possible to ensure the success of this mission global lighthouse."
Weiler said that based on preliminary assessments of the Agency, additional charges related to the delay in the launch scientific laboratory would not result in the cancellation of the other programs of NASA over the next two years. He, however, admitted that it would result in further delays of program not specified.
Critics have charged that delays and cost overruns associated with the laboratory of Science of March are indicative of a body which is hampered by a lack of responsibility and the inefficiency of the management of time and taxpayer dollars.
"The Mars Science Laboratory is only the latest symptom of a culture of NASA who has lost control of spending," writes Alan Stern, a former NASA Associate Administrator, in an op - ed in the New York Times 24 November. "Cancer is overflow our space agency: the acquiescence routine huge cost increases in the projects."
Stern accused the agency cost overruns are being fed by "managers that disguise the size of the cost increases that support missions" and "members of Congress who accept steep increases to protect employment.
Browne responded in a written statement indicating that NASA administrators are constantly "working to improve the capabilities of estimated costs (the Agency)." ... We continually review our projects to understand the true risk in terms of performance, cost and schedule. »
"The reality of life at NASA, where we are charged with creating the first-of-a-kind mission of scientific discovery, is that the cost estimates of... science can be almost as difficult as to actually do science," said Browne.
Project of NASA last March - the Phoenix Mars lander mission - ended last month after the solar vehicle battery raced a dust storm and the onset of the Martian winter. It had operated two months beyond its initial three-month mission.
NASA officials had landed the vehicle on the ordinary Arctic after satellite observations indicate it large amounts of water is frozen in this area, probably in the form of permafrost. They thought that a place would be a promising place to find organic chemicals who report a habitable environment.
The scientists were able to verify the presence of water ice in the Martian subsurface, find low concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life and observing snow descending from the clouds, NASA said Thursday. All About Mars Exploration • NASA