The Open University's Head of Planetary and Space Sciences, Colin Pillinger, has warned the only thing science will be celebrating in 2009 are achievements past. In an article for The Telegraph, he said: ‘Is 2009 going to be the year that never was for planetary science?'
It certainly looks like it. NASA’s giant Mars Rover is over budget by almost as much as the increase in size compared to previous landers. With the credit crunch affecting everybody, it’s not a good time to ask for more money, so it won’t be going until 2011. ESA’s ExoMars has already been delayed from 2009 to 2001 to 2013 and now won’t be expected to land until 2017, if Europe can raise double the original starting price.
Russia has a mission to the Mars moon Phobos, but they play their cards very close to their chests, so we don’t know if that will set off next year either. It seems a shame that in 2009, the only thing we’ll be celebrating are achievements past. Thing that happened 40 years ago - Apollo 11 and man’s first small step onto another boby in thed solar system. We all thought then we’d have returned samples of Mars and humans on the red planet by now. But let’s look on the bright side: maybe the British Government will decide to have a lunar mission or even more improbably and Astronaut.’
