Oct 8 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that a panel of scientists at its Ames Research Center (ARC) said today that, although Mars presently was a frigid desert planet, it once had enough water to cover its entire surface with an ocean more than 300 feet deep. Dr. Michael Carr of the U.S. Geological Survey said at the meeting, which grew out of research discussed the previous winter at ARC's Water on Mars Workshop, that “The pictures taken by the two Viking spacecraft in orbit around Mars tell us that Mars had as much water in geologic history as earth did.” Carr said the 20,000 close-up pictures taken since 1976 by the two Viking spacecraft revealed canyons that were deeper, wider, and longer than the Grand Canyon and could be made only by rushing rivers. The photos also showed thousands of gullies formed only by water or snow and ice slicing into the surface or forcing their way up to the surface.
If all the water that existed on Mars to form these channels covered its surface today,” commented ARC's Dr. James Pollack, “it would be enough to form a global Martian ocean tens of hundreds of meters deep.” Carr pointed out that the Viking photos also suggested that water was below the surface at latitudes near the Martian equator where the planet's interior heat could keep it from freezing just as do underground rivers in most temperate latitudes on earth. “There is a softening of the terrain, a rounding off of the edges . . . that is evidence of underground water flow and the creep of ice near the surface,” he said.
This terrain is also located where most of the Martian gullies are today, where snow, ice, and water burst out of the ground to cause the colossal floods that formed the channels we see today,” Carr said.
And Pollack added that Mars long ago lost most of its carbon dioxide, which helped trap the sun's heat, causing in effect a permanent Martian ice age. (NASA Release 85-140)
The National Academy of Sciences' Astronomy Survey Committee, the NASA Solar System Exploration Committee, and the NASA Committee on Solar and Space Physics made recommendations for future NASA space exploration and science programs, which Rep. Wyche Fowler, Jr. (D-Ga.) was asking the U.S. House to endorse in concurrent resolutions, Defense Daily reported. Advisory committee recommendations were often the basis for programs NASA sought to implement.
The Astronomy Survey Committee recommended the following major new programs “in order of priority” for total funding of up to $950 million (in constant 1980 dollars) over the next ten years: (1) the advanced x-ray astrophysics facility (AXAF) to be authorized in FY 87, (2) a very-long baseline (VLB) array of radio telescopes, (3) a new technology telescope (NTT) of the 15-m class operating from the ground at optical and infrared wavelengths, and (4) a large deployable reflector (LDR) in space.
The Solar System Exploration Committee recommended a program funded at a sustained annual level of $300 million per year (in FY 84 dollars). Its four initial core program recommendations were the Venus radar mapper (authorized in 1984), the Mars observer (authorized in FY 85), a comet rendezvous/ asteroid flyby to be authorized in FY 87 for a 1990-92 launch, and the Titan probe/Saturn orbiter to be authorized for a 1988-92 launch as a joint NASA/ European Space Agency mission.
Other committee recommendations included the Mars aeronomy orbiter, the Venus atmospheric probe, the lunar geoscience orbiter, the Mars surface probe, the cornet atomized sample return, the multiple main belt asteroid orbiter/flyby, the earth-approaching asteroid rendezvous, the Saturn flyby/ probe, the Uranus flyby/probe, the Neptune flyby/probe, and the Pluto flyby.
The Committee on Solar and Space Physics recommended an average annual funding of $400 million (in FY 84 dollars) “which would be sufficient to achieve the highest objectives in solar and space physics between the year 1988 and the year 2000.” Major missions recommended were the upper atmosphere research satellite (authorized in FY 85), solar optical telescope for launch in 1990, the international solar terrestrial physics program for launch between 1989 and 1993, a solar probe for launch in 1995, and a solar polar orbiter to be launched in 2000. The committee also endorsed a seriesof moderate Explorer-class missions of about one launch per year. (D/D, Oct 8/85, 197)
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