526 SIDELINES NEWS science fiction. recruited from Russia’s top spacecraft. Space StationonaRussian price for atriptotheInternational programmes thisyear. universities through outreach salary tosave thatmuchmoney. bank hisorherentire $810-a-month Russian cosmonaut would have to The Times. Sources: 0 2,080 US$20 million NUMBER CRUNCH home-made set-up. low level ofnuclearfusionusinga amateur scientisttoachieve a has reportedly become the18th Amateur fusion SCORECARD than thezoo can handle. having more Abyssinian lioncubs Ababa’s zoo, ontheproblem of Muhedin Abdulaziz,ofAddis “ children. people lessabletobondwiththeir to believe thatpromiscuity makes that research involes hasledhim planning programmes. Keroack says chosen toheadtheUSfederal family- outraged thatEricKeroack hasbeen Journalist AmandaSchaffer is sunset. They are tomarrynext year. Physics, whilewatching aPacific Ouellette, whoblogsatCocktail Party captured ofJennifer theheart Sean Carroll, ofCosmic Variance, The words withwhichscience blogger “ ON THERECORD taxidermists. is tosendthemthe our immediatesolution of thosewaves? a Fourier transform fascinating totake spins fromthem isthenumberofcosmonauts “ For thetime-being Wouldn’t itbe a prairie vole and neuropeptide and This isaguy who takes a Slate, Detroit Free Press, Township, Michigan, Olson ofOakland Schoolboy Thiago isthenumberofyears a ” ” istheticket

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NASA/R. MILLER cally long-lived, allexpectations surpassing wringing asmuchwringing out as possible science of a hole big too to get out of? until them run break, they get lostor fallinto a to missions, sense it make financial really does againstrunning odds. allthe mission to Hubble keep the Space Telescope billionsis spending of dollars on ashuttle continue to roam planet, the and agency the longer than 90-day their intended lifetimes and and Opportunity have lasted both ten times for NASA missions Mars —the rovers Spirit anniversary of its launch. It’s afamiliar story lostcontactfinally with it just before tenth the and beingextended four timesuntil scientists hadgonewhich missing two weeks earlier. orbiting spacecraft Mars Surveyor, Global goodbye said asad Scientists lastweek to the afresh?missions orstart A space dilemma:extend artist’sSpouting forth: impression ofdusty gasjetsfound by Mars GlobalSurveyor atMars’s southpole. Extending missions isatrade-off between But however attached we might get to old portrayed asheroi-The mission hasbeen ©

2 0 0 6 N a t u r e

P u b l i s h i n g G r o u p that, are they because much so cheaper than a choosing what needsto done. But Green insists craft was designedfor, the science rather than extended mission you are restricted to the division,science acknowledges that with an cost-effective.” it’s like “It’s landing lander: anew scientifically roverstime the move afew hundred metres, inPasadena,tory claims California, that every project scientist at Jet the Propulsion Labora- ofpart mission. the But Banerdt, Bruce rover once existed on planet, the came from early the ers, such asclinching that case the liquid water mostimportantthe results from Mars the rov- of millions or more. Critics might argue that launch whereasto anew run, can costhundreds mis- extended An sion money. the worth well as seen sions. Andat NASA, keeping missions going is craft and redirecting resources into mis- new James Green, director of NASA’s planetary-

typically costsafew million dollars ayear NATURE | Vol 444 | 30 November 2006 NATURE|Vol 444|30 November 2006 NEWS

SPACE-AGE RELAY NASA lost contact with Mars Global Surveyor on 2 November. Despite bombarding the craft with more than 800 command files, the last scientists heard was a possible faint signal on 5 November. Mars Global Surveyor made the first reliable topographic map of the whole planet, and revealed swathes of the surface in great detail. It also allowed the first analysis of Mars’s ancient magnetic fields. But perhaps its most dramatic discovery was of fresh gullies in the walls of some craters and on other slopes that seemed to have been formed by fluid flow. More recently, the craft was helping Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived in March, to scout out a landing spot for the next generation of Mars probes: Phoenix, due to arrive in 2008, and Mars Science Lab, which will touch down in 2010. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s mission is scheduled to run until 2010, but is expected to last far longer. The planet is currently circled by two other craft, NASA’s Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. The overlap between Mars Global Surveyor and these missions marks the first time that one craft orbiting a planet (other than Earth) has passed the baton to another. K.S. new mission, extended missions are worth the Bignami, chairman of ESA’s space-science effort. NASA’s mission scientists bid for exten- advisory commission. “By continuing to extend sions once the primary science objectives have missions you eat into resources that could be been fulfilled, and missions are judged on their used to do something new,” he explains. scientific impact to date: “science per dollar”, Up to 10% of ESA’s budget is spent on keep- he says. ing old missions alive, and Bignami says that Possible extensions are not mentioned in the no missions have been ended while they were initial mission planning stages, so designing still operational. But the agency expects that missions to last longer than planned is an easy with several new craft due to launch in the next way for mission scientists to buy into future few years — including BepiColombo bound for budgets. There’s also the pub- “Missions are judged Mercury, and Gaia, which will lic-relations value — in terms create a three-dimensional map of public image, it is better to on their scientific of our Galaxy — it will become say a mission will last for five impact to date — more difficult to keep old mis- years and then extend its life, science per dollar.” sions running. than to say it will last for ten ESA approves missions for years and lose it after nine. The latter scenario two years at a time, and some are definitely would be seen as a failure, says Lori Garver, a worth extending, says Bignami; for example, the former NASA associate administrator. She sees XMM-Newton X-ray satellite, which is looking no problem with deliberately underestimating at black holes and exploding stars. He reckons the life of a spacecraft. By the time a mission that other missions might be easier to finish, is ready to be extended, the big pots of money such as Venus Express — there’s a limit to how have already been spent on it, she says. much useful data can be gathered by continu- Attitudes at the European Space Agency ing to orbit Venus with the same instruments. (ESA), which has a smaller budget and flies Although many are sad to see Mars Global fewer missions (17 spacecraft are currently Surveyor go, Bignami also anticipates some operational), are slightly different. Letting mis- happy faces at NASA, as an old mission is finally sions run until they fail, with no predefined abandoned and new ones can begin. ■ notion of how long that might take, is not nec- Katharine Sanderson essarily a sustainable strategy, says Giovanni See Editorial, page 520.

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