Posted on 08/13/2002 12:50:04 PM PDT by crypt2k
The head of NASA's Mars program on Wednesday challenged researchers from Southwest Research Institute to contribute ideas and technology toward a "scientific assault" of the Red Planet in this decade and beyond. Orlando Figueroa, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars Exploration Program, was the keynote speaker at a two-day workshop on Mars experiments and technologies at the San Antonio research facility.
The workshop is part of the institute's self-funded $2.4 million initiative to build Mars expertise in such fields as space science, materials, geochemistry, instrumentation and vehicle and power-supply research.
James L. Burch, vice president of the institute's space science and engineering division, introduced Figueroa to a crowd of about 50 researchers as "one of NASA's rising stars."
Figueroa said NASA's unmanned missions to Mars this decade already are largely planned out with the exception of its Scout program, which was created to generate novel ways to probe the planet starting in 2007 at a reduced cost.
"We're looking for new ideas in Mars exploration," Figueroa said. "It is a fully open competition to the broad scientific community."
New space orbiters, landers, rovers and even balloons or gliders could be used, he said.
"We know we have a very creative and inventive scientific community that can come up with ideas that I'm sure will blow our mind," he said.
NASA also needs instruments to detect biological processes to determine whether life ever existed on Mars, he said.
Alan Stern, principal investigator for the local institute's Mars initiative, said scientists are eager to make any contributions to NASA's Mars missions. "We're really very open to everything."
NASA's plans for Mars this decade include landing two rovers in 2004, orbiting the planet on a separate reconnaissance mission in 2005 and landing a mobile scientific laboratory in 2009.
Figueroa said he hopes crafts would land in the next decade on Mars and then return to Earth with soil samples.
"A lot of the history of the planet is recorded in rocks in the soil," he said.
Humans will not walk across the Red Planet for decades to come, Figueroa predicted.
"A human mission to Mars is really not in our agenda at the moment," he said.
Still, there's always the dream, he said.
"We know that in order to explore and experience a new world, nothing compares to humans actually being there," Figueroa said. "Yes, we can develop instruments that can do remarkable things.
"But nothing compares to the human ability to think in real time while they are there and to see first-hand what is there and allow us to experience through them what it is like."
$2.4 million? It can't be too much of a priority then. At this rate, the sun will be extinguished by the time we get our act together. Oh well...
Mea culpa.
Sure they are...
They don't want to go to Mars - then they wouldn't be able to cover up the fact that the famous "Martian face" is an artifact of Martian civilization, which has been visiting us since the 1950's, and has given NASA the technology for stealth bombers, fiber optics, non-stick frying pans, and the Waterpik.
Where's my hat?
Then he should resign. I am looking for the man who will design and execute a mission to put human explorers on Mars within a decade. That's "one" decade, not decades.
But when they do a human mission, it will be named in honor of Sheila Jackson-Lee.
NASA was far better when it was just an advisory board that vetted proposals from industry. They are just clueless.
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