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Wednesday's announcement about the possibly discovery of life on ancient Mars has resulted in sharply different responses from two space advocacy groups.
The National Space Society has announced its support of efforts to "get aggressive" and expand NASA's program of Martian exploration, while the Space Frontier Foundation announced its opposition to any expanded government-supported Mars exploration program, preferring to see private organizations take up the slack.
"Our future in space has become more clear," NSS president Charlie Walker said. "What has long been science fiction has changed overnight. We now have compelling evidence for life beyond our shores and now we have to set sail."
"We hope that what
we learn... will mobilize our nation and its political leaders, as well as
galvanize NASA and the science community, to accept the challenge that has been
before us since our Apollo journeys to the Moon: to initiate a program to send
human explorers to the Red Planet," said aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin, chairman of NSS's executive committee.
NSS officials hope that the discovery wil result in "expressions of intent by the political parties and their candidates before the end of
the campaign season as to what they intend to do in the near term to plan the
nation's long-term commitment to a systematic study of the Martian planet," in the words of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who serves as chairman of the NSS's board of directors.
The NSS released Wednesday a four-part call for action in response to the discovery. The plan calls for the organization to:
- ask NASA to re-evaluate its Mars mission strategy, with a special emphasis on moving up the date of a Mars sample return mission;
- support President Clinton's call for a bi-partisan "space summit" later this year;
- focus on Mars exploration with a logical, well-thought-out series of missions; and
- recommend Martian landing sites where drilling of up to 30 meters (100 feet) or more is possible, in an effort to look for existing life on the planet hidden deep under the surface
"Like all discoveries, this one will and should continue
to be reviewed, examined and scrutinized," Clinton said. "It must be confirmed by
other scientists."
While the NSS pushed for an expanded, vigorous government-led program of Mars exploration, the Space Frontier Foundation issued a call again any "massive international program to explore Mars."
Citing the high costs of proposed robotic and human Mars missions, the organization believes empowering private organizations to operate Mars missions is the best policy.
"NASA's
traditional plans to return a sample of Mars soil would cost around $8
billion," said Rick Tumlinson, president of the SFF. "A far better way would
be for the space agency to procure soil samples from private firms, which
are better equipped to mount low cost missions than the government."
"We believe this would cost the taxpayers a tenth of the traditional government-does-it-all approach."
The SFF proposes that the U.S. offer to buy Martian soil samples fom American firms. The government would only pay money for delivered soil samples, thus avoiding the possibility of spending billions of dollars on a spacecraft and launch vehicle and not have it operate properly.
"We can spend tens of billions of dollars today on a
series of huge international projects that might someday in the future
repeat the old Apollo flags and footsteps stunt in the red sands of Mars," Tumlinson said, "or we can toss out the old way of doing things, save billions, get there faster and create a new and vital space industry that can provide the infrastructure we need to permanently
open the space frontier to our children."
The Space Frontier Foundation is a grassroots organization based in New York City. It is "dedicated to opening space to economic development and human settlement as soon as possible."
The National Space Society is also a grassroots organization, based in Washington, D.C. and claiming a membership worldwide of over 27,000 people.
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