With Mars Launch, NASA and JPL Seek to Regain Pride and Prestige

Technicians have checked and double-checked each seal and solder. Engineers have reviewed countless lines of software code and every last metric conversion. Panels of experts have spent months trying to dream up--and then quash--any possible scenario for failure.

Now, after a mind-numbing rundown of checks and reviews, the 2001 Odyssey spacecraft is perched atop a Boeing Delta II rocket on Launch Pad 17, ready for its six-month trip to Mars. The launch is scheduled for 11:02 a.m. EDT today.

The $300-million spacecraft has been reviewed so intensively because it is the first Mars craft to be launched since the devastating failure of a Mars lander and Mars orbiter. The two craft launched in 1998 were lost the next year, one because of a navigation error, the other because of a mix-up over metric and English units of distance measurement.

The boxy, 6-by-8-foot spacecraft, sheathed in gold Mylar, carries one dish-shaped antenna for calling home, a 20-foot length of solar panels, 770 pounds of fuel and three scientific instruments that will provide the first extensive clues to what makes up the Martian surface.

In its search for traces of Martian life, NASA has been “following the water,” an ingredient thought to be crucial for biological functions. No liquid water has been found on the Martian surface, and Odyssey will be the first craft to peer beneath the surface with an instrument that will seek traces of ice several feet below ground.

While scientific questions hang in the balance, NASA’s pride and prestige are also at stake. Although NASA and JPL leaders vowed to continue to send exploratory spacecraft to the Red Planet every two years, another setback could cost the Mars program support and funding. A success is also crucial to morale at the agency, among engineers at JPL in Pasadena and at Lockheed Martin in Denver, where the two doomed spacecraft were built for NASA.

“It’s got to work--even the cabdrivers I take to the airport tell me that now,” said George Pace, the project’s manager for JPL.

‘It’s Time to Let This Thing Go’

Pace has overseen a grueling examination of 220,000 aspects of the spacecraft that could contribute to failure and approved 144 major changes to limit risks, he said.

Much of that work has fallen on a team of about a dozen spacecraft technicians, who built Odyssey for NASA at a Lockheed Martin facility in Denver and have been here tending to the spacecraft since January, putting in six- and seven-day workweeks.

“A lot of people around here are carrying ghosts from ‘98,” said Chris McCaa, a member of the spacecraft team from Lockheed Martin.

“We’re just getting done with another final review before the final, final review,” said a slightly weary John Henk, who manages the team. “It’s time to let this thing go.”

Much of the oversight has come from outside experts and officials at NASA headquarters, such as Ed Weiler, an associate administrator who flinches visibly at the thought of losing this craft.

“I don’t know what more we could do,” Weiler said of the spacecraft and its team. “Even though they’re the best people, they’ve been reviewed to death. Checkers are checking the checkers.”

Weiler had drastically scaled back NASA’s Mars exploration program after the failures. Originally, an orbiter and lander were to be launched this year on a budget of $300 million. Now, just one spacecraft will be sent under that same budget; the additional money was used to add personnel and conduct reviews in response to criticism that NASA’s “faster, better, cheaper” mantra had been far too cheap. Now, no landers will be sent to the surface of Mars until 2003, when NASA will send two.

The 1,600-pound Odyssey spacecraft is scheduled to reach Mars about Oct. 24. Its mission is to renew a search for traces of Martian life that the Viking missions began in 1975. Odyssey will map the composition of the Martian surface and search for frozen water that could be a reservoir for life--current or fossilized--on a planet where temperatures can dip to 100 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

While nervous jitters range from slight to extreme among members of the launch team, by Friday much of the anxiety was giving way to excitement as the launch grew closer. “I don’t get nervous,” said Pace, a 39-year JPL veteran who still gets thrills at the spectacle of a launch. “I get goose bumps.”

Though humbled by earlier spacecraft losses, NASA engineers appear to have fully regained their confidence. “For nine months, we’ve had expert after expert come in, look for a flaw and find none,” said Roger Gibbs, a JPL engineer overseeing the assembly of the Odyssey. “A better spacecraft can’t be built.”

The weather appeared to be cooperating for an on-time launch, said Joel Tumbiolo, the launch weather officer, who predicted sunny skies, 82 degrees, a light sea breeze from the southeast and, most important, no lightning in the vicinity of the launch pad.

“With this great weather, the only thing I’m worried out is a lot of boats will be out there,” he said.

The Air Force 45th Range Squadron was set to clear boats from a 65-by-35-mile swath of ocean northeast of the Cape, the area where the Delta II’s jettisoned fuel tanks are expected to land.

Solar Flares Pose Hazards

Last year, a fishing tournament in the danger zone contributed to one scrubbed launch, and sleeping shrimpers who could not be awakened to move their boat derailed another, said Lt. Col Wayne Thompson, an officer responsible for keeping the range clear.

With local newspapers, and signs at Canaveral Port, now warning mariners to avoid the launch hazard area, Thompson said he expects no problems. “Most fishermen are very responsive to what you’re saying,” he said.

“You’re going to have a really bad day if one of those [fuel tanks] lands on you,” added Lt. Alana Austin.

With clear skies over Florida, the only worrisome weather has been in space. A series of massive solar flares reached Earth this week, carrying charged particles that could harm electronics on the rocket and the spacecraft, meteorologist Tumbiolo said.

“I think that’s dying down,” said Ed Stone, who is chief of JPL and also a solar physicist.

Other problems came from unexpected sources. Recent military tensions with Iraq led Saudi Arabia to refuse permission to fly U.S. planes overhead to track the rocket’s trajectory. On the other hand, the Sultan of Oman agreed recently to allow NASA use of a ground tracking station, said Pace.

At a beachside party Thursday night where engineers and technicians tried to ease last-minute nerves, a relaxed Stone said he was confident about the spacecraft--and the team that created it.

“The hard part,” he said, “is over.”