[meteorite-list] NASA Says Mars Assault Is On

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:54 2004
Message-ID: <200205291626.JAA28819_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2013000/2013863.stm

Nasa says Mars assault is on
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News
May 29, 2002

We are doing precisely what we need to do to send humans to Mars, Dr James
Garvin, Nasa's senior Mars scientist, told BBC News Online.

Dr Garvin is a researcher with an impressive track record in exploring the
Red Planet and he is excited and inspired by the discovery of vast
underground reservoirs on Mars.

Scientists have discovered there is so much ice beneath the surface in the
polar regions of Mars that if it were to melt it would deluge the planet.

But where does this discovery fit in with the long-term exploration of the
Red Planet, and what are the prospects of sending humans to Mars?

'Unprecedented assault'

If you think that the Mars Odyssey discovery of water is dramatic then,
according to Dr Garvin, there is much more to come.

"What we have is an unprecedented assault on Mars," he told BBC News Online
from his office in Washington, DC.

"We have even more contact with the planet that we did with the Moon before
humans went there."

"We have missions every launch opportunity through to 2009 and plans to
increase the pace of exploration into the next decade," he says.

The next missions will be surface rovers and advanced survey craft observing
from orbit.

In 2004 Nasa hopes to place a mobile laboratory onto the surface looking for
what it calls are 'chemical fossils' to trace the history and movement of
water across the planet."

Because of these mission by the end of the decade we may have mineralogical
maps of Mars that are better than those of the Earth along with a much
improved understanding of Martian weather, particularly on scales that would
matter to human visitors.

"Mars is not the Moon. There are planetary dynamics there that blow away
anything we have on the Moon - the planet is changing - exchanging gasses
with itself - the weather systems are dynamic, the temperature variations
extreme," says Dr Garvin.

By 2009 Nasa hopes to have the capability for pinpoint landings and the
ability to roam many tens of kms across the surface.

Mars sample return

But James Garvin's biggest challenge is to bring a piece of the planet back
to Earth.

"We have meteorites from Mars but my biggest task is to bring back a fresh
piece of Mars. We know we need samples."

But when?

"As soon as it is technically feasible. We have to do our homework and
develop the technology we need. It will take us a decade. But when we can we
will do it," he says.

But what about sending humans to Mars?

Sean O'Keefe, Nasa's new Administrator has a vision that human explorers
will move out into deep space.

"That's a vision not a program, but I ask what is the difference between
what we are doing on Mars now and the preparation we would have to do for a
manned Mars mission. The answer is nothing.

"Our unmanned exploration of Mars is just the homework we need to be doing
for any eventual manned mission. This programme is the right antecedent for
man on Mars."

Dr Garvin points out that other areas of Nasa will be looking into the
technologies needed to propel humans across interplanetary space, keep them
alive in space and bring them back home.

And he is keen to put talk of a program to put men on Mars into perspective.

"We will go but let's be sure what we are doing. It is a distance 1,500
times further than the distance to the Moon. In the history of human
exploration there has never been such a leap as we will take from the Moon
to Mars.

"To do it we need to know more, develop better technology, and understand
Mars better. That is what we are doing."
Received on Wed 29 May 2002 12:26:40 PM PDT