E
NASA Presentation to NRC Committee for Its Study on "The International Solar Polar Mission (A Review of Assessment Options,)" June 1981
The alternative mission plans considered and their estimated run-out costs as furnished by NASA (including all past year expenditures incurred for the U.S. spacecraft) are given below. The costs of launch vehicles, launch operations, data acquisition, flight operations, and tracking are not included in these estimates. According to NASA, these costs are approximately the same for either one or two spacecraft launched on a single Shuttle-Centaur and are estimated to be in the range of $175 million to $200 million.
Options |
NASA-Estimated Costs ($ millions) |
I A single ESA spacecraft with the U.S. and European instruments currently assigned to it (NASA provides the launch vehicle and services for launch, mission control, tracking, data analysis for U.S. experiments, and data acquisition and storage for all experiments) |
110-130 |
II Procurement of a second ESA spacecraft by NASA at a fixed price of $40 million (FY 1981 dollars).a This second spacecraft would be equipped with the instruments planned for a NASA spacecraft except the solar imaging instruments on the despun platform, which cannot be accommodated. Adaptation of instruments to this spacecraft would be required and involves unknown costs. |
235-250 |
III Procurement of a U.S.-built NASA spacecraft with no imaging. The ESA spacecraft would be provided as planned; the second spacecraft would be U.S.-built and equipped with all planned instruments except the coronagraph and x-ray–extreme ultraviolet (XUV) telescope. |
310-330 |
IV Procurement of a NASA spacecraft with minimum imaging. This option is the same as "Option III" except for the addition of a spinning white light coronagraph on the NASA spacecraft, which potentially involves high development costs. |
380-430 |
V Full restoration of the two-spacecraft mission, including high-quality imaging capability (white light coronagraph and x-ray–XUV telescope) on a despun platform on the NASA spacecraft |
410-460 |
NOTE: ESA = European Space Agency; NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration. a ESA had made an offer to NASA to have the second spacecraft built by Dornier for $40 million, with ESA prepared to pay for any cost overrun. |