Vice President Al Gore met with a panel of nearly two dozen scientists, theologians, and philosophers on December 11 to discuss the importance of this summer's discovery of possible past life on Mars and its impact on future NASA programs.
     The panel called for more work in NASA's Origins program, which seeks out to understand how the universe was created and how life formed on Earth and perhaps other worlds.
     "This discussion today about possible evidence of life throughout the solar system was exhilarating and thought-provoking," Gore said in a statement after the meeting.
     "Today's discussion reinforces how important it is that we continue to pursue the unknown and that we as a nation continue to place a high value on protecting and promoting our scientific enterprise," he said.
     The Origins program encompasses a number of fields, including research on the Big Bang and the formation of galaxies, stars, and solar systems, as well as biological research on the beginnings of life on Earth the possibilities for life elsewhere.
     "We will be driven by answering fundamental scientific questions," NASA administrator Dan Goldin said after the meeting. He said however, that key areas of the Origins program were "woefully underfunded."
     The panel included a number of eminent scientists, including astronomer Carl Sagan, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, biologist Lynn Margulis and David McKay, the Johnson Space Center scientist who led the team that found the Mars life evidence in meteorite ALH 84001.
     Also included in the diverse panel were DePaul University president Rev. John P. Minogue, journalist Bill Moyers, and a number of Clinton and Gore staffers.
     The meeting was a prelude to the "Space Summit" planned for early next year. There members of the Clinton Administration and Congress will meet to discuss overall future plans for the space agency.

As the search continues in Bolivia and Chile for debris from the crash of Russia's Mars 96 spacecraft, officials from those countries criticized Russia for not providing them with timely information about the demise of the spacecraft.
     
According to Bolivian authorities, Russia did not contact Bolivia about the possibility of the spacecraft crashing on Bolivian soil until December 5, more than a week after the U. S. Space Command said that it was possible the spacecraft may have crashed into a region of southwestern Bolivia or northern Chile.
     Mars 96, which crashed to Earth just a few hours after launch on November 16, had been the subject of heightened concern since it carries four small radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that contain a total of 200 grams of plutonium. The RTGs would have powered the four spacecraft that would have landed on the surface of Mars.
     While Russian officials assured Bolivians and Chileans that the RTGs were shatterproof, officials in South America were skeptical. "We are concerned because if there are any people in the area the radiation can cause cancer, malformations. We are talking of a real hazard," said Bolivian Environmental Minister Moises Jarmuz.
     No debris from the spacecraft has been recovered, and no radiation from the RTGs has been detected. Chilean officials now believe the spacecraft crashed just beyond its border with Bolivia, based on eyewitness reports.
     Chile has sharply criticized Russia for not providing updated information on the fate of the spacecraft. "The problem is the Russians have repeated their previous information... but have not given out any new details which would allow us to carry out a more precise search," claimed Chilean Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza earlier this month.
     Even the United States has come under criticism for apparently waiting ten days before announcing that the spacecraft may have hit South America, even though they apparently had the data available to them earlier to make the announcement. The delays contrasts with the warning given Australia shortly after it was believed the spacecraft might have struck that nation.

At a White House ceremony December 2, President Bill Clinton awarded astronaut Shannon Lucid the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for her record-breaking stay aboard the Russian space station Mir.
     "Most pioneers set their sights on just one frontier. Shannon Lucid has pushed to the furthermost reaches of two -- the frontiers of both space and science," Clinton said at the ceremony.
     "Perhaps even more than she knows, she has set a remarkable example for a new generation of young Americans, especially young women," Clinton said.
     "What this flight really was , was a story of two great spacefaring nations that cooperated together, that worked together," Lucid said at the ceremony. "To the three of us [on Mir] this seemed like just a small miracle, something that we never would have thought of when we were children."
     Lucid is the tenth astronaut to receive the medal. Previous winners have included Alan Shepard, the first American in space; John Glenn, the first American in orbit; Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon; and Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission.