Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Stifled by budget cuts and foundering without clear-cut goals, NASA has scheduled only one Mars probe, the Mars Observer, which will go into orbit around the planet in 1993 to collect data on climate and geology. And while President Reagan agreed at the recent Moscow summit to a cautious joint communique describing "scientific missions to the moon and Mars" as "areas of possible bilateral and international cooperation," the Administration has been at best lukewarm to the concept of exploring Mars, jointly or otherwise...
While the U.S. lacks a strong commitment to sending humans to Mars, the Administration's space policy, announced by President Reagan in February, does envision eventual "human exploration of the solar system." Toward that end, NASA has launched Project Pathfinder, a program to develop 18 new space technologies. They include compact nuclear reactors for powering lunar or Martian bases, in-space construction and assembly of spacecraft, and orbiting fuel depots for moon and Mars ships. "You can talk about going to Mars," says Pathfinder Leader Robert Rosen, "but you can't do it without these technologies." Congress appropriated $40 million...
Pathfinder did not start from scratch. NASA and the aerospace industry have long planned a variety of Mars missions that could lead to a manned flight. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., scientists are designing an unmanned rover with six wheels, each more than 3 ft. in diameter, to accommodate the rocky Martian terrain. In a still unapproved mission, the rover, imbued with artificial intelligence and television eyes, would seek out appropriate rock samples and stow them in a craft designed to return them to earth for analysis. At NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville...
...problems of sending a spacecraft to Mars and bringing it back to earth pale when compared with the challenge of keeping its human cargo safe and in peak physical and mental condition. The medical consequences of long periods of weightlessness are still not fully understood. And radiation, says NASA's Michael Bungo, "is going to be a showstopper." Once beyond the earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, which protects terrestrial life from most lethal radiation, crew members would be vulnerable to cosmic rays. These highly energetic particles travel through space at close to the speed of light and can produce...
Both American and Soviet behavioral scientists have begun to investigate small-group dynamics, which are likely to assume considerable significance during extended spaceflight. "There are always minor irritations involved in working with other people," says Psychologist Clay Foushee, of NASA's Ames Research Center. "Normally, these are not a problem because you can get up and move away. The trouble occurs when you can't leave a situation." That trouble can become catastrophic. Long Antarctic expeditions, which involve small groups isolated for months, have been marred by fights and occasional violence...