123 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Fido 304/1 N E X U S B B S 602-526-8025
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The Sun: Flagstaff, Arizona, Sunday, April 16, 1989
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By Paul Sweitzer
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Sun Staff Reporter
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"Soveit Failures Could Hurt Mars Quest"
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AMerican scientists are carefully watching for signs of direction in the
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Soviet Union's space program after failures of two unmanned efforts to probe
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the Marian satellite Phobos.
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The last of two attempted Russian probes of Phobos has been lost, Soviet space
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scientists announced late last month. THe Soviets said they lost radio contact
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with Phobos 2 days before it was to land on the Martian satellite. Phobos 1 was
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lost in the summer of 1988 when a technician apparently threw a wrong switch
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and simply shut the probe down.
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Soviet hopes for launching a longterm exploration of Mars ther were pinned on
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Phobos 2, which bbegan experiencing malfunctions and the was completely lost
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from contact in the last week of March.
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On March 29, Soviet space officials announced that Phobos 2 was " 99 percent
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lost for good."
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Two leading space scientists based in Flagstaff are amoung the Americans
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watching with interest to see what direction the Soviet space program will
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take. Further, they'll be watching the development of a whole new set of
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political and social concerns inside the USSR.
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Hugh Keiffer and Laurence Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey's Center for
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Astrogeology in Flagstaff feel the two losses are a definite seback to Soviet
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hopes for mounting long-term Marian exploration theough the remainder of this
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century. It is exploration which would have culminated with a manned landing on
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the red planet sometime in the first decade of the 21st Century.
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Soderblom, who had been working with French scientists on an pexperimental
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package on the lost Phobos flight and who had a tentative invitation to put an
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experiment on a future Russian Mars flight, feels the past Soviet attitude
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toward space has been severly altered as a result of internal political
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changes.
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Kieffer agrees, saying in former times the Soviets merely would have stepped up
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their efforts to reach Mars in the wake of the failure. Today, he says, the
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Soviet population has more Earthbound concerns and the space program may suffer
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a setback, at least in terms of time.
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Alost five years ago, the Soviets began unveiling plans for an ambitious
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program of Mars exploration in private meetings with American space scientists.
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AMericans were being quietly urged to take steps to join their own country with
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that program.
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In a 1987 visit to FLagstaff, two leading Soviet space scientists, Alexander
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Basilevsky and Neon Armand, gave broad details of the program in an appearance
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before faculty and students in the geology department at Norhtern Arizona
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Universityu. That marker the first time the Soviets had discussed the program
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publicly, wither inside or outside their own country.
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The Soviet plan called for Martian flights possibly every two years and
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certainly every four years -- times when Mars would be in the facorable
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opposition to Earth -- through the end of this century. Exploration of Phobos
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-- known as "the moon of mars" -- is a critical part of that program, since the
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satellite possibly would be used as a launching platform for the final, manned
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flight to the red planet.
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Soderblom says there is a feeling in the American space science community the
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Russians were in too much of a hurry; the two satellites lost were launched
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without much thought to a system of checks and balances that might have
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prevented such problems.
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American scientists also point out that the USSR -- while having what amounts
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to tremendous success in exploration of Venus -- have had a long, frustrating
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line of failures where Mars is concerned.
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"I'm hopefull that the RUssians will continue with their steady, progressive
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effort in space exploration," Keiffer says. "But they have a new set of
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national concerns that may make that difficult."
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Soderblom agrees. He points out that recent political concerns in the Soviet
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Union -- ethnic and national identity, a new political liberalization -- may
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make the usual relentless exploration of space imppsoble for Soviet leaders.
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"With the new political freedom in the Soviet Union," Soderblom says, "the
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leader are liable to become more reactionary and liberal than in the past."
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Soderblom and Kieffer both say the new political freedom in Russia is likely to
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lead more to concentration on the quality of life on Earth rather than on the
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exploration of space.
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Keiffer says that because of recent agreements to exchange space information
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with the U.S., the Soviets no longer perceive Americans as copmpetitors in
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space exploration. The loss of that sense of competition, he says, could also
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cause the Soviets to delay their Mars program.
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Kieffer points out both America and the Soviet Union spend relatively little on
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space exploration, when compared, for example, to what is spent on defense by
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both countries. In the Soviet Union, he says, the people now might perceive the
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program as being too expensive, as do many people in the U.S.
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He is quick to add, however, that the space programs of both countries probably
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have more unspoken popular supprt than political leaders on both sides have
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perceived.
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For the UFO Enthusiast......
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"From Outer Space"
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Howard Meneger
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Speaking of the "aliens"
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"They say that no man can leave his planet with the purpose of conquoring and
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controlling another world."
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Fido 304/1 N E X U S B B S 602-526-8025
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