Word: planet
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...manned trip to Mars, long the stuff of science fiction, now appears to be just a matter of time. The mystic planet, glowing red and ever brighter in the night skies, is heading toward its closest approach to the earth in 17 years this September, tantalizingly near and beckoning. After a hiatus of a dozen years, during which neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union mounted missions to & Mars, a spacecraft is once again on its way, opening a new era in the exploration of the earth's closest planetary neighbor. During the next decade or so, the Soviets will...
...Mars mission early in the 21st century, the next President will have to make a commitment to a coherent national space policy sooner rather than later. Enormous problems remain to be solved, and two decades is precious little time for developing a program that would land humans on another planet. The clock is running, and to NASA Ames Scientist Carol Stoker, the message from the Soviets is coming across loud and clear: "We're going to Mars, and the bus is leaving." And like her, more and more Americans are asking: Will the U.S. be aboard...
Even as the celebration went on, the thoughts of space experts turned to future Mars odysseys. Scientists and engineers in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union are involved in the design of complex unmanned craft that will travel to the planet. Some American scientists are even conducting tests on a model of the robotic vehicle that may one day rove the Martian surface. Others are considering the ships that will carry human crews to Mars, the orbiting space station needed to launch them, the size and safety of the crews and the most practical routes through space. Though some...
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...
Ever since they first peered into the night skies, humans have been awed and intrigued by Mars' baleful red glare. Ancient civilizations bestowed on the planet the name of their god of war. It was named Ares by the Greeks, Mars by the Romans. When the first telescopes revealed that the planets were neither specks of light nor gods but worlds, perhaps like earth, the notion grew that Mars might harbor life. Noting variations between the bright and dark areas of the planet, British Astronomer Sir William Herschel in 1784 attributed them to "clouds and vapors" and concluded that Mars...