Mars rover devours budgets

Ever-growing cost of the planned Mars Science Laboratory threatens other space missions.

Eric Hand

Cost estimates for the Mars Science Laboratory have risen again.NASA

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), NASA's souped-up 1-tonne rover due for launch in 2011, needs yet more money. The latest budget overrun could for the first time delay other missions in the agency's cash-strapped planetary-science division.

The rover's latest price tag is US$2.286 billion — 40% more than the official $1.63-billion estimate made in 2006. But even that will not be enough. In a 'breach report' due to be handed to the US Congress by the end of July, NASA will report that the troublesome mission, now also called Curiosity, needs $15–115 million more on top of the $2.286-billion estimate.

NASA has so far avoided delays and cancellations to other missions by raiding technology-development funds within the Mars programme. But officials are now considering delays to two planned Moon missions.

"The time for some tough decisions is here," said NASA science chief Ed Weiler. He broke the news to planetary scientists at an advisory-committee meeting on 9 July at NASA headquarters in Washington DC, along with Jim Green, director of the planetary science division, and Mars programme chief Doug McCuistion.

Slippery issue

The cause of the latest overrun is problems with motors, gearboxes and avionics controls. After switching from a dry to a wet lubricant, engineers have had trouble verifying the reliability of motors for the rover's robotic arm. Moreover, McCuistion says, a new snag was recently discovered: some of the premier instruments — the Sample Analysis at Mars or SAM instrument set — will suck twice as much power as was expected, and that means the rover needs to carry bigger batteries.

“Where's it going to end?”

Clive Neal
University of Notre Dame

McCuistion says he won't have confidence in the estimates for the rover's latest needs until November, when an independent cost estimate is finished. If the additional costs stay towards the $15-million end of the spectrum, McCuistion and Green think they can keep the pain within the Mars programme, by cutting money for later Mars missions in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

But if the extra costs rise toward $115 million, the agency may have to delay the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, a small orbiter due to be launched in 2012, and the International Lunar Network, a planned system of robotic lunar research stations. The agency could also delay work on New Frontiers, a planned $870-million programme of missions to many Solar-System destinations that has just begun accepting competitive proposals.

"Where's it going to end?" asks Clive Neal, a planetary scientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and chair of NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group. "Everything is getting sick because of one mission. And I'm not happy with that."

Too big to fail?

Like many bloated scientific endeavours, however, the MSL may be too big to fail. In January, after NASA decided to delay the rover's launch from 2009 to 2011, the planetary-science advisory committee was presented with a shocking, but presumed final, $400-million overrun. The committee recommended that NASA press ahead with the mission and try to limit cuts to the Mars programme.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the project manager, Richard Cook, was replaced by Peter Theisinger, a former project manager for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. McCuistion says he will order an independent "lessons learned" investigation in 2010.

By then the extent of the damage to NASA's long-term plans may be known. Weiler says that it looks like the agency may not be able to be able to afford a 2020 launch of a major mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. With Mars technology budgets decimated, a Mars Sample Return mission is moving even further down the schedule. Such a mission, which would cost $6–8 billion, isn't likely to start until around 2024, says Weiler.

Taiwan's hopes for a biotech revolution

The president of the country's top research institute on growing the knowledge economy.

David Cyranoski

Chi-Huey Wong.Academia Sinica

In October 2006, Chi-Huey Wong took over the reins of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top research institute. Convinced that Taiwan's former reliance on contract manufacturing is a dead end, Wong has been working closely with key government officials since then to help the country speedily establish its biotechnology industry. His experience in California — as Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, and, more importantly, as co-founder of Optimer Pharmaceuticals, San Diego — will be valuable in taking Taiwan into a new business sector. Nature News asks Wong how Taiwan will succeed when so many other countries are playing the same game?

Your predecessor, [Nobel laureate chemist] Yuan Tseh Lee, also chose to push the biotechnology industry. How will you be able to improve on what he did?

We had a thorough review of the status of biotech development in Taiwan, and concluded that we needed to do two things. First, we helped Congress pass a new Biotechnology and New Pharmaceutical Development Act in July of 2007. Now companies can get a 35% tax exemption for investment in research and development into new drugs and high-end medical devices. Also, the act enables inventors from academic institutions to serve as founders, board members or scientific advisors, and take equity in start-up companies. It is similar to the Bayh-Dole Act established in 1980 in the United States.

“I predict Taiwan will have at least 5% of the world market within 10 years.”

Chi-Huey Wong
Academia Sinica

Second, this April, the government passed a biotech development action plan, which paved the way for a US$2-billion venture capital fund, a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a super-incubator to provide core facilities as well as professional services and consultations, and expansion of the existing Development Center for Biotechnology to focus on preclinical development. These will help capitalize on Taiwan's strength in early-stage discoveries from Academia Sinica and universities. Two new biotech parks are being developed to facilitate this process.

What impact has this biotechnology-friendly legislation had so far?

We have seen momentum building in the sector. For example, 16 new companies were established to develop new drugs in the past two years, and currently there are about 20 new drugs in clinical development. More medical device companies were also formed, tech transfer activities increased and stock-exchange volume grew.

Some investors are sceptical about the prospects of biotech in Taiwan because of the small domestic market. What do you say to that?

We need to compete for the world market, including China. Taiwan's strength and experience in information and computer technologies could help with the biotech development, especially in medical devices, remote care, biobanking [storage for biological materials and data], and new medicines for diseases and genotypes commonly found in the Chinese community. We expect new products from our leading research in HBV [Hepatitis B], liver cancer and lung cancer; drug side-effects related to Steven-Johnson syndrome; and new vaccines for breast cancer and influenza.

Taiwan's advantages are early-stage discoveries and experience in late-stage clinical trials, respect for intellectual property and a solid regulatory system (similar to the US FDA system). What we need to do is to strengthen our translational research, so the early-stage discoveries can be translated into commercial opportunity.

How will you measure the success of your biotech initiatives? Do you have a target in terms of the number of biotech companies to be formed or the number of patents filed, for example?

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Considering the number of biotech patents issued by the United States [Patent and Trademark Office], Taiwan is now ranked number 13 in the world. One-third of the patents are from Academia Sinica. But the bottom line is to see the outcome in terms of [biotechnology] market share. I predict Taiwan will have at least 5% of the world market within 10 years.

Taiwan is already struggling to cultivate and recruit top scientists. With fewer young bioscientists in Taiwan, how do you expect to keep up with China and other pressure on the scientific labour market?

This is a major challenge for Taiwan. As we move into the knowledge-based economy, we also need to make sure that we have enough talent to support and stimulate its growth. We have state-of-the art facilities and stable funding, but we also need to be more open and more flexible to recruit internationally, and provide reasonable salaries in order to be competitive. We have seen an increase in the hiring of foreign faculty members and recruitment of foreign graduate students and post-doctoral fellows at Academia Sinica and universities. I am sure a good portion of this foreign human capital will be integrated into our society to sustain our future development and prosperity.

Obesity links found between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons

Scientists have found a strong obesity link between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons, but the link was absent across the gender divide.

In a study of 226 families by Plymouth's Peninsula Medical School, researchers found that obese mothers were 10 times more likely to have obese daughters and for fathers and sons, there was a six-fold rise.

But in both cases children of the opposite sex were not affected.

According to the researchers, it was "highly unlikely" that genetics was playing a role in the findings, as it would be unusual for them to influence children along gender lines.

On the other hand, they attributed the link to some form of "behavioural sympathy" where daughters copied the lifestyles of their mothers, and sons copied the lifestyles of their fathers.

And, thus, experts believe that the government policy on tackling obesity should be re-thought.

To date, researchers have focussed on younger age groups in the belief that obese children become obese adults.

But the new findings indicate that obese adults led to obese children.

"It is the reverse of what we have thought and this has fundamental implications for policy," the BBC quoted study leader Professor Terry Wilkin as saying.

He added: "We should be targeting the parents and that is not something we have really done to date."

The researchers took weight and height measurements for children and parents over a three-year period.

It was found that 41 percent of the eight-year-old daughters of obese mothers were obese, as compared to four percent of girls with normal-weight mothers.

However, there was no difference in the proportion for boys.

For boys, 18 percent of the group with obese fathers were also obese, compared to just three percent for those with normal-weight fathers.

And again, there was no difference in the proportion for girls.

The findings of the study have been published in the International Journal of Obesity.

Pre-Hispanic Zapotec rulers carried around human thighbones as symbol of power

New findings from a Field Museum (Chicago) excavation team has confirmed that pre-Hispanic Zapotec rulers carried around human femurs, or thigh bones, as a symbol of power and legitimacy.

Scientists had earlier found evidence of this theory from a carved lintel at the site of Lambityeco, where a ruler is depicted with a femur in his hand.

Now, a Field Museum excavation team has confirmed that they did remove femurs from earlier graves and that this custom may have been widely practiced by heads of households outside of the ruling class.

The missing femur was located in an early adobe cist internment, circa 500 AD, that lay under an excavated house at the Mitla Fortress, in the Valley of Oaxaca, some 322 miles southeast of Mexico City.

While excavating this residential terrace, or house lot, the Museum team found a total of 16 burials that include 21 individuals.

The systematic excavations are the largest ever conducted at this site well known to archaeologists for more than 150 years.

Field Museum Curator of Mesoamerican Anthropology, Gary Feinman, and Adjunct Curator of Anthropology, Linda Nicholas, are analyzing the burial sample and other finds from the Mitla Fortress.

The Fortress is less than two miles west of Mitla, which is indigenously known as the "Place of the Dead."

Although this ancient Zapotec custom of bearing a femur of a corpse has long been recognized, the excavated burial provides clear evidence of the re-opening of an earlier burial in order to remove a bone.

The evidence could further reveal that this bone-carrying custom may apply beyond rulers - since the excavated house is not a ruler's residence.

Field Museum archaeologists hope to excavate a more elaborate house in the future to gain more perspective.