Re:Success/Failure (Score 1)

I give JPL partial credit on this one. Yes, they did plan to use MCO as a comm relay for MPL. They always planned to use MGS as a relay for DS2 and now that will be their sole option for the MPL as well. This is certainly a good example of using the available assets effectively, and replanning when things don't go your way.

However, on the navigation side they either failed to consider, or discarded the option of using existing assets to refine the navigation estimates. During mission design, they could have decided to equip MGS with a transmitter to provide (if nothing else) range and range rate between MGS and the following spacecraft (MCO and MPL). Think of a GPS solution with one transmitter -- the solution is a sphere centered on the transmitter.

This would have been a potent piece of data because JPL knows quite well where MGS is, and combining this with other data (Earth tracking, vent models, and orbit determination software) would permit better resolution on the estimation perpendicular to the line of sight, which was the least accurate piece of tracking they had. Also, if you have measurement inccuracies, better to measure a small, converging distance than a long, diverging one. This might have exposed the bogus vent model en route, or obviated the problem entirely at the destination.

I'm not sure what impact this would have had on the cost of MGS, MCO and MPL but it might have been cheaper than commandeering the entire Deep Space Network for better tracking data. In fact there is only so much DSN to go around as a recent news story pointed out.

The point is, use the power of the network to your advantage.