MARS 1999
An Exclusive Preview of a U.S.-Soviet Human Mission
Brian O'Leary
Stackpole Books, 1987
160 pp., $14.95
THE MARS PROJECT
Journeys Beyond the Cold War
Sen. Spark M. Matsunaga
New York: Hill & Wang, 1984.
216 pp., $17.95
A U.S. senator and a scientist/astronaut have, in spite of their different backgrounds and starting points, reached a similar conclusion: The United States should pursue a manned mission to Mars. In addition, each traces, in a very personal way, his search for areas of cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union that could be substituted for competition between the two superpowers.
The Mars Project is an absorbing story, well told by a man of obvious goodwill and intelligence--a practical dreamer. Between 1982 and 1985, Sen. Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii has introduced seven congressional resolutions for international cooperation in space. He hopes that "aggressive" cooperation can improve U.S.-Soviet relations by increasing contact between the two societies. He envisions a concerted effort to increase our exchanges with the Soviet scientific technical elite, who are presumed to be repressed by the KGB but anxious to have contact with their colleagues in other nations. Yet, Matsunaga recognizes that in the past we have had to withdraw from similar cooperative endeavors when the Soviet nation has egregiously misbehaved, for example, by marching into Afghanistan. With no illusion about the Soviet system then, he wrestles with two major questions:
·How can the United States cooperate with a political system that not only practices international aggression but withholds elementary freedoms for its own people?
·How can such cooperation be carried out without the transfer of technology that may have military value?
The answers may lie in the coordination of space projects and the exchange of scientific research data, rather than in the joint development of hardware or in joint space missions. "Joint" projects would not only lock us into a rigid time schedule with the Soviets, forcing us to cooperate even if their regime acts contrary to our other and more vital international interests. Furthermore, joint projects, almost by definition, involve some transfer of advanced technology that could be harmful to our national security.
Matsunaga expresses the general impatience of the public with the detailed esoterics of space science; he tells planetary astronomer David Morrison, "Frankly, whether or not there is nitrogen or hydrogen on Venus or Jupiter doesn't excite me very much." But Matsunaga recognizes the special attraction of Mars, the Red Planet, which has been the focus of intense speculation for more than a century.
Scientifically, Mars is by far the preferred planet for exploration. Studying its evolution can
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