Word: sagdeyev
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Dates: during 1987-1987
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...Sagdeyev was already embarked on another project, one that could have ended his career. Called Vega, the mission was designed to approach and study Halley's comet. Sagdeyev chose to build Vega around the proven, off-the-shelf technology of the Venera probes. But he wanted the scientific instruments to be custom designed, even though the expertise was not available within the U.S.S.R. So he recruited scientists from nine countries, including the U.S., to join the project. That was unheard-of in security-conscious Soviet space circles. Recalls Sagdeyev: "Sometimes my opponents, in order to take over, were almost ready...
...Vega mission put the world on notice that the Soviet Union would not take a backseat to anyone in space science. Admits NASA's Briggs: "They closed a big gap." But Sagdeyev has made it clear that catching up was only the beginning. He has now directed his considerable intellect, political capital and diplomatic charm to another high-risk international mission. If all goes according to plan, the Phobos probes will take off next summer for Mars. When they reach the Red Planet some 200 days and 118 million miles later, they will orbit for a time, taking data...
Phobos will glide between 98 and 260 ft. above the moon's surface -- "something similar to a cruise missile," quips Sagdeyev -- and drop an instrument-bearing minilander to record data on the moon's soil. One experiment involves a laser that will emit short bursts of energy, each vaporizing a square millimeter of surface into a cloud that can be analyzed by the probe's spectrometer. "You can pick up such exploded material from many different places," says Sagdeyev. "In the end you have a chemical map of the surface of Phobos -- if you are lucky...
...Sagdeyev has even higher expectations for the Mars Sample Return mission, now being planned for the late 1990s. The idea is for the spacecraft to make a soft landing on the planet and send a rover to gather soil samples on a yearlong trek over the surface. Then about 2 lbs. of material would be returned to earth for detailed analysis. In Sagdeyev's plan, the U.S. would supply the rover, plus advanced electronics to guide it from an orbiting mother ship...
...Sagdeyev's enthusiasm for robot probes, however, brings with it an inevitable tension: in the U.S.S.R., just as in the U.S., the unmanned and manned programs compete for budget dollars, and so far the manned missions have been the big winners. But, says Sagdeyev, "99% of what man can do in space can be done by robots." The statement irritates his comrades at Soviet mission control. "This crew has done 100 repair jobs," scoffs Victor Blagov, the deputy flight director, arguing that humans are needed to deal with unanticipated situations. Snaps Stepan Bogodyazh of Glavkosmos, the Soviet equivalent of NASA...