(16 Oct 1996) English/Nat
U-S Space Agency NASA, has announced its future vision of exploration on Mars following the startling news earlier this year that there could be some form of life on the planet.
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin opened a briefing focusing on the robotic exploration of Mars, focusing specifically on two U-S missions set for launch this autumn.
Space exploration to Mars has intrigued humans for hundreds of years.
But budget cuts and an uncertain future for all space travel, have until recently put active discussion on Mars missions on the back burner.
NASA Administrator Goldin took the opportunity of renewed public interest in the red planet to highlight missions that have been in the planning stages for a number of years.
SOUNDBITE:
\"After a hiatus of 20 years, America returns to Mars. And we return to Mars not just with one mission, but this is the first of a series of 10 spacecraft going to Mars. In addition to America returning to Mars, the Russians are also going to launch a spacecraft to Mars. And we'll have some experiments on board that Russian space station.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
The first of this year's missions, the Mars Global Surveyor, is due to be launched from Cape Kennedy on November the sixth.
SOUNDBITE:
\" This spacecraft will go into orbit about Mars and will be able to be in orbit -- it's scheduled to be in orbit for one Martian year. And a Martian year is 687 days. The Martian day is just about equal to an Earth day, about 24 hours. So over the period of a year, we'll watch the changes in the Martian environment. We'll be able to see the dust storms. And, hopefully, we'll be able to do remote analysis to begin to determine the qualities and the characteristics of the Martian surface.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
Goldin said the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor will allow NASA to construct a three dimensional image of the planet.
Acknowledging that cost had been a factor when planning the current exploration of Mars, Goldin praised the teams for bringing both missions under budget.
He said the Mars Observer, which was lost in 1993, cost about a billion (b) U-S dollars and took over a decade to develop. The two new missions are about one-quarter the cost.
The Mars Global Surveyor has 80 percent of the scientific experimentation of the Mars Observer.
Goldin said the second spacecraft would be the Mars Pathfinder, which is planned to land on the surface of Mars. This mission is due to be launched early December.
SOUNDBITE:
\"The Mars Pathfinder will release a robot about the size of a large microwave oven, but it only weighs 22 pounds. And, if you will, it's like sending a 22-pound geologist to the surface of Mars. And it will be able to sample a variety of different Mars rocks.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
NASA scientists are planning for the Mars Pathfinder to land in an ancient flood plain, which they believed in two weeks received as much water as exists in the U.S. Great Lakes.
They hope on the flood plain there may be some rocks as old as the Allen Hills rock that scientists have been looking at for signs of fossilised life.
The NASA plan over the next ten years includes sending ten spacecraft, two at a time, at each launch window. The scientists have determined there are launch opportunities in 1996, in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005.
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