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From: RSchatte@aol.com
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 23:52:34 -0400 (EDT)
Fwd Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 08:46:08 -0400
Subject: Mars Isn't an Easy Destination


---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    Mars Isn't an Easy Destination
Date:    97-06-26 22:55:14 EDT
From:    AOL News

.c The Associated Press

      By JANE E. ALLEN

      PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The path to Mars is fraught with peril.
The last four space missions to the red planet - one American and
three Russian - have failed.

      The most notable was NASA's $1 billion Mars Observer, which
disappeared on Aug. 21, 1993, just before getting into Mars orbit.

      On Nov. 16, 1996, Russia's $300 million Mars 96 suffered a
rocket engine failure after launch and crashed into the Pacific
Ocean.

      The twin Soviet Phobos probes, launched in July 1988, also
failed. Phobos 1 received an inadvertent suicide command from
Earth. Phobos 2 stopped transmitting in 1989, after collecting data
about Mars and the small martian moon for which it was named.

      ``Getting to Mars is hard. Doing stuff at Mars is right out on
the edge of human technological capability,'' noted Roger Bourke,
an engineer on the staff of the Mars Exploration Directorate at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ``It's 1,000 times farther away
than the moon.''

      Of at least 16 Russian or Soviet attempts to reach Mars, only
one achieved its mission - a strong contrast to the tremendous
Soviet successes landing on Venus and the U.S. track record of six
Mars successes in nine attempts.

      ``It's like they (the Russians) were just plagued in this Mars
arena and I don't think there's any single explanation,'' Bourke
said.

      The Soviets actually kicked off the era of Mars exploration in
October 1960 when they launched two unnamed spacecraft four days
apart that never even reached Earth orbit. Other failures or
partial successes followed in 1962, 1964, 1971 and 1973. The
Soviet's single, unqualified success was the Mars 5 mission in
1973, which returned data and pictures.

      NASA did better with the six Mariner spacecraft it sent up
between 1964 and 1971. Four completed their missions. Mariners 4, 6
and 7 made successful picture-taking flybys. In 1971, Mariner 9
became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. NASA lost
contact with Mariner 3 shortly after launch in 1964; Mariner 8
plummeted into the Atlantic after launch in 1971 because of a
rocket failure.

      The biggest martian achievement so far came from America's twin
Viking orbiters and landers, launched in the summer of 1975.
Together, they transmitted more than 50,000 images back to Earth.
They also sampled dusty soil but found no evidence of life. Viking
1 stayed in operation until 1982.

      End Adv for Sunday, June 29
      AP-NY-06-26-97 2248EDT
      Copyright 1997 The
Associated Press.  The information
contained in the AP news report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without
prior written authority of The Associated Press.