
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990                   TAG: 9004170052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PANEL URGES CAUTION IN JOINT MARS PLANS

Joint missions to Mars by the United States and the Soviet Union are too risky now, a panel said Monday, recommending instead that the two nations follow "a graceful path" of coordinated but independent exploration.

"The United States and U.S.S.R. have no prior experience with the degree of cooperation necessary to carry out a technical project of this complexity or magnitude," said a committee of the National Research Council, which conducts studies for the government's National Academy of Sciences.

The committee said it was concerned "about relying on the consistency of the relationship over a period of a decade or more into the future."

The panel's report appeared to chill the idea frequently expressed by many experts that Mars would be explored jointly by the Soviets and Americans, doing together what would be too expensive for either nation to do alone.

The United States and the Soviets have cooperated in space in the past, most notably in 1975 when three Apollo astronauts joined their spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz and exchanged bear hugs in orbit with two cosmonauts.

The committee was commissioned by NASA to look into undertaking missions with international partners to use robots to gather rocks and soil from Mars and bring them to Earth for analysis. The committee concentrated its study on efforts by the United States and the USSR because "they are the only nations presently in a position to take on the lead role in a major Mars program."

The Soviets have said they intend to explore Mars with robotic rovers, space probes orbiting overhead and by returned samples.

Detailed Mars investigations, before any manned landing, would include robotic missions at four to six selected sites over a number of years. The committee said its recommended approach "would allow a graceful path to increasingly close levels of cooperation."

The committee said it reached conclusions after considering three levels of U.S. participation with the Soviets in a Mars venture:

Each country conducting programs independently.

Split responsibilities and joint technical operations.

A highly coordinated exploration program.

by CNB