Young noted that there was not enough margin or adequate funding for the Mars '98 missions. Those signals led to a false indication that the craft had landed, prematurely shutting down the lander s engines high above Mars. This resulted in the spacecraft crashing on the surface. Lack of spacecraft telemetry during critical periods of its entry, descent and landing made it impossible to trace the exact failure problem. No most probable cause for the loss of the microprobes was identified, but the tiny devices were not adequately tested prior to liftoff.
Project managers have their own, and sometimes-different interpretations of faster, better, cheaper.
Crisp definitions for building econo-class spacecraft are needed. Monies are to be held in reserve for Mars spacecraft that run into technical difficulties. In recent years, such funds were not available, Weiler said. That did not inspire a lot of communications. If you ran into trouble, you knew there was no more money.