exosci.com / Wednesday June 30, 1999
NASA scraps comet probe

NASA announced Monday that it was scrapping its ambitious and PR-friendly project known as Champollion (Space Technology 4). The $240 million project was to land a probe on the surface of comet Tempel I in 2005.

The probe was due to be launched in 2003. The some 40-50 scientists on the project had only spent roughly $10 million dollars of the total budget at the time of cancellation.

The cancellation was due to cost overruns in other NASA projects. The $1.5 billion Chandra X-Ray observatory was $60 million overbudget. Additionally, the Hubble Space Telescope requires another maintainance mission (8 months ahead of schedule). NASA officials claim that Space Technology 4 was scrapped not due to the scientific nature of the mission, but rather because it was very early in development as compared to other current NASA projects.

Space Technology 4 was managed by Brian Muirhead, who also led the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997.

"We know very, very little about how comets are formed and what their constituency is. If you're serious about planetary protection, you have to know mor e about comets than we do today," said Muirhead.

-David Watanabe