Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401060044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We found no smoking gun," said Timothy Coffey. "There was no telemetry from the spacecraft, no hard evidence to investigate. Therefore, it was impossible to provide conclusive evidence."
Coffey headed an independent board investigating the sudden disappearance of the spacecraft Aug. 21 after an 11-month trip and only three days before it was to orbit Mars.
"The failure investigation was one without any corpus delicti," Coffey said.
Ground controllers had turned off the Mars Observer's communication with Earth to avoid damage while they pressurized its propulsion system by opening valves with explosive devices. After giving the pressurization commands, they tried to restore contact. There was no response, and there has been none since.
"The pressurization sequence somehow triggered a single, fatal malfunction in the spacecraft, either hardware or software, that very rapidly became catastrophic - e.g., loss of power, explosion, or rapid, uncontrollable spin," the board's final report said. The Mars Observer "most probably met with a catastrophic event . . . that terminated its mission."
Coffey said the most probable cause was "a massive rupture of the pressurization system."
He said he does not believe the spacecraft exploded, but that it has become a useless, unpowered, spinning hull in the vicinity of Mars and in an orbit of the sun that might bring it back to within a few hundred thousand miles of Earth in a few years.
Coffey's board also faulted NASA for mismanaging the program as it evolved, but said "no direct linkage can be made between these weaknesses and the mishap."
Martin Marietta, which built the spacecraft, had already received 80 percent of a $21.3 million "orbital performance fee," but that is to be reviewed.
by CNB