NASA awards $485M Mars project to University of Colorado

WASHINGTON -- NASA chose a University of Colorado proposal for a $485 million Mars mission on Monday after a nine-month delay caused by a conflict of interest in the selection process. The delay cost the U.S. space agency time, money and science.

The price of the probe increased by $10 million, its launch was postponed by two years, and the science-gathering mission will be cut in half to one year, an official said. NASA chose the University of Colorado's proposal to study the Martian atmosphere from 20 other ideas to study Mars that were trimmed to just two before a conflict of interest was declared.

NASA has not disclosed what the conflict was or whom it involved, other than to say last year that it was not created by NASA but by one of the two competing groups. The space agency said last December that a "serious" conflict of interest in one of two proposals forced it to disband the board formed to pick the winner and create a new panel to award the contract.

NASA said Monday there is no more conflict of interest because the two finalists submitted new proposals, and "the conflict in the original reports was irrelevant to the evaluation and the selection decision."

Officials maintained they still cannot disclose details because it involved "proprietary information." That information has been destroyed, NASA said.

Bruce Jakosky, associate director for the Colorado lab and principal investigator for the mission, said the conflict was not with the Colorado proposal. The other finalist was the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. In December, a Southwest spokesman refused to comment on the delay or questions about the conflict; that group could not be reached for comment after business hours Monday.

The Mars Scout program originally had been scheduled for 2011 launch. But since Mars comes close enough to Earth to launch probes only every 26 months, NASA had to postpone the mission to 2013. The mission will focus on the Martian atmosphere, how it evolved and lost its water to make of Mars the desolate place it is today.