NASA Briefing Charts: Mars Exploration Program Status Planetary Sciences Subcommittee of NAC
9 July 2009
Doug McCuistion,
Mars Exploration Program, Director
(presented by Jim Green)
Budget Status and Impacts
- MSL overall budget needs remain around $400M at PMC, but reserves were unacceptably low (~13% cost-to-go)
- Expect a requirement for additional resources to restore reserves to adequate levels ($15-115M), predicted by several different cost models
- Amount to be determined this calendar year after more progress has made on technical issues
- Impacts must be contained in Planetary Division
- The Mars Program will repay non-Mars “loans”
- Impacts to cover low- to mid-range budget needs, in order:
- Reduce or eliminate Mars Program APA in FY10 and FY11
- Reduce US portion of Mars-16/18/20 missions
- Reduce Discovery future and New Frontiers mission lines (no impact to current schedules)
- Impacts increase to cover mid- to upper-range budget needs, in order:
- Further reduce US portion of Mars-16/18/20 missions
- Delay LADEE and ILN missions
- Delay New Frontiers 3 phase B selection
The Path Forward
- MSL Project’s Baseline readjusted w/additional $400M in President’s 2010
budget - Updated Status to PSS (this meeting)
- Submit MSL Project Cost and Schedule Analysis Report (“Breach Report”) to Congress by the end of July
- Development = $1,631M (68% development overrun); LCC = $2,286M
- Report states that additional reserves may be needed ($15M to $115M range)
- HQ/SMD will continue tracking progress through weekly meetings and metrics (resolution of technical issues, reserve burn rates, PFR closure rates, workforce profile, etc.)
- Conduct a “Readiness to Proceed” Review in November 2009–actuators, avionics, power, etc.
- Project must stabilize these key technical issues for meaningful CTG estimates
- Include updated cost estimate
- After “Readiness to Proceed” Review, assess the need for added funding reserves
- APMC approval required
- Bring back to PSS for review
