Mars project may never get off ground

WASHINGTON — America's next daring adventure on Mars — a 1-ton rolling science laboratory scheduled to launch next October — is in deep trouble.

Huge cost overruns and technical difficulties may cause the $2 billion Mars Science Laboratory to be delayed or canceled outright, members of a NASA advisory committee were warned Thursday.

"Our problem is enormous," said Jim Green, director of the space agency's Planetary Science Division, as project costs soar up to 40 percent above budget.

The successor to the wildly popular Spirit and Opportunity rovers, still toiling along on Mars, is supposed to check out a region on the planet's surface where conditions could support past or present life — one of science's highest goals.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is to decide whether to cancel, delay or go ahead with the troubled mission Friday.

It's also possible that Congress, grappling with massive budget deficits and the cost of a $700 billion financial-rescue package, will terminate the mission on its own.

The lander, a 9-foot-long minivan packed with scientific instruments, four times heavier than Spirit and Opportunity, has already cost $1.5 billion. Poor management and inflation will add about $500 million to that sum, the panel was told.

"A lot of serious mistakes were made," McCuistion said. "Mars [the program] is out of money. We're laying people off."

"I'm not sure Congress will rescue MSL," said Ed Weiler, NASA's chief scientist. "We need to move mountains, and there are no more mountains to move."