Computer image showing what the probe may have looked like when landing on the comet. Click on image for full size (33K JPG) Courtesy of NASA

A mission that would have sent a probe to comet Tempel 1 has been postponed indefinitely. This mission, the first of it's kind, would have landed on the comet in 2005. Unfortunately, other projects have used up the money allotted towards the program. This is the first time a mission has been scratched in 10 years.

"What we're trying to do is solve our own problems," said Edward Weiler, head of NASA's space science program. "Nobody is coming to our rescue from somewhere else in the government."

NASA says it was just bad luck for the mission, called the Space Technology 4/Champollion project. Of all the missions planned by NASA, this one was in the earliest stages. NASA had only spent $10 million on the project. For comparison, the next earliest mission was Mars Surveyor '01, which has already soaked up $100 million.

NASA spent the majority of the $240 million set aside for the comet probe on the Hubble Telescope and the new Chandra-X Space Telescope. The Chandra-X project recently used an extra $60 million on sudden development problems. The gyroscopes aboard Hubble need repairs, which has forced NASA to send up a crew to fix it. The money left over will be given to other missions in various stages of development.

"We know very, very little about how comets are formed and what their constituency is," says Brian Muirhead, who led the successful Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 and also managed Space Technology 4. "If you're serious about planetary protection, you have to know more about comets than we do today."

Computer image showing what the probe may have looked like when landing on the comet. Click on image for full size (33K JPG) Courtesy of NASA

A mission that would have sent a probe to comet Tempel 1 has been postponed indefinitely. This mission, the first of it's kind, would have landed on the comet in 2005. Unfortunately, other projects have used up the money available for the program. This is the first time a mission has been scratched in 10 years.

NASA says it was just bad luck for the mission, called the Space Technology 4/Champollion project. Of all the missions planned by NASA, this one was in the earliest stages. NASA had only spent $10 million on the project.

NASA spent the majority of the $240 million set aside for the comet probe on the Hubble Telescope and the new Chandra-X Space Telescope. The Chandra-X project recently used an extra $60 million on sudden development problems. The gyroscopes aboard Hubble need repairs, which has forced NASA to send up a crew to fix it.

One scientist working on the project says we really don't know much about comets. It is too bad the program was cut, because it is very important for global protection.

Computer image showing what the probe may have looked like when landing on the comet. Click on image for full size (33K JPG) Courtesy of NASA

NASA cut its newest project, which would have sent a probe to a comet. Sometime in 2005, the comet may have landed on comet Tempel 1. Now, there is no more money to continue the mission.

NASA spent a lot of the money on the new Chandra-X Space Telescope and the Hubble Telescope. They both needed extra money to fix problems. The left over money will be given to different projects.

The probe should have studied the core of the comet. Scientists were hoping to study the makeup of these weird objects. We could have learned how to better protect our planet from a possible collision.