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It is for the reason of technological robustness that I have decided against the development of the reusable Space Shuttle at this time; despite the manifest economic benefits of such a launch system if available, I am not convinced that our technology is so mature that we are ready yet to confidently tackle the huge problems posed by the project without cost overruns and delays, and many of its economic benefits should in any case be realizable from enhancements to our existing ‘throwaway’ platforms.
It is also significant that this major new national enterprise will engage the best efforts of thousands of highly skilled workers and hundreds of contractor firms over the next several years. The continued preeminence of America and American industry in the aerospace field will be an important part of the Mars mission’s payload.
We will go to Mars because it is the one place other than our Earth where we expect human life to be sustainable, and where our colonies could flourish. We will go to Mars because an examination of its geology and history will reflect back a greatly deepened understanding of our own precious Earth.
Above all, we will go to Mars because it will inspire us to clearly look beyond the difficulties and divisions of today, to a better future tomorrow.
‘We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,’ said Oliver Wendell Holmes, ‘but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.’ So with man’s epic voyage into space – a voyage the United States of America has led and still shall lead. Apollo has returned to harbor. Now it is time to swiftly build new ships, and to purposefully sail further than our ancestors could ever have dreamed possible …
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1972 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1972)
Wednesday, January 5, 1972
… As indicated in the President’s statement, the studies by NASA and the aerospace industry of the Mars mission have now reached the point where the decision can be made to proceed into actual development of mission components. The decision to proceed, which the President has now approved, is consistent with the plans presented to and approved by Congress in NASA’s FY1972 budget.
The Mars mission will consist of a pair of ships assembled in Earth orbit. The ships will be clusters of several nuclear-rocket propulsion modules, launched by chemical vehicles based on our proven Saturn V technology. The spacecraft will be designed in this modular form to enable different configurations to be assembled speedily: for example, to complete missions to other planets or to the asteroids. The crew will inhabit modules developed from the first ‘dry fuel tank’ Skylab space stations we intend to fly from next year. The crew will ride a new landing craft to the Martian surface.
As the President indicated we are not going to work to a set timetable. However we hope to fly our first mission to take advantage of Mars’s opposition with Earth in 1982. This first mission will be preceded by an intensive development program including flight phases in Earth orbit. The program will include the full development of the new nuclear technology, of life support for long-duration missions, of interplanetary communications and navigation techniques, of the increased reusability and reliability of systems, and of Mars entry and landing systems. Calls for recruitment of astronauts for the new program will shortly be issued.
To survey landing sites for the eventual manned mission a new series of Mariner unmanned photographic orbiters will be sent to Mars. These flights will replace the previously proposed Viking science platforms, which are now canceled, and so will take place within the envelope of current funding levels.
The decision by the President is a historic step in the nation’s space program. It will transform man’s reach in space. In another decade the nation will have the means to transfer men and equipment across interplanetary space; shortly thereafter we expect such missions to be mounted as routinely as we now have sent men to the Moon and returned them safely to Earth. Not just Mars, but our sister planet Venus, the resources of the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter and the outer planets will come within our compass. This will be done within the framework of a useful total space program of science, exploration, and applications at approximately the present overall level of the space budget.
Thank you …
Frederick W. Michaels Chronological File, 1972, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC
Wednesday, January 5, 1972 NASA Headquarters, Washington DC
Gregory Dana had spent the day at a meeting on rendezvous techniques for the upcoming Skylab missions. He came across a number of Houston people gathered in the hallway, before a notice board.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Don’t you know? We’re going to Mars. Nixon has confirmed it at last. Look at this.’ They made way for him at the board. At first Dana could see nothing of interest to him on the board: an offer of tickets for the Cowboys vs Dolphins Superbowl, classes in TM and acupuncture (posted here, in NASA HQ!), and a bright orange sticker saying simply JESUS HEALS. But there, crowded out by the trivia, was a closely-printed piece of headed paper. It was a statement from Nixon, and a subsidiary statement from Michaels, the new NASA Administrator. Some supporting press briefing material was pinned up too: a ‘Mars mission digest,’ with simple question-and-answer chunks of information about the mission, and a few spectacular artist’s impressions of the mission’s various phases. There were even a few outlines of the modes which had been evaluated and discarded.
There was no mention of Dana’s Venus swingby mode.
Since that apocalyptic Phase A meeting in Huntsville back in July, Dana had heard almost nothing of the development of the Mars options. And this was the first he’d learned of the final decision – along with the Headquarters cleaning staff, and the rest of the nation. It was clear, now, that he’d been excluded from the decision-making process since July.
What could he do about it? Write another letter to Fred Michaels?
He felt the injustice, the stupidity of it, burn a hole in his stomach.
Well, it was nothing to do with him any more. Maybe, at least, Jim would be able to realize some of his own dreams, in the slow unwinding of this decision.
Dana tucked his briefcase under his arm and walked away.
Mission Elapsed Time [Day/Hr:Min:Sec] Plus 003/09:23:02
York floated in her sleeping bag. She was dog tired, but sleep just wouldn’t come. Her lower back was sore, and she had a stuffy headache, as if she was developing a cold. Her heart was suddenly too strong; blood seemed to boom through her ears. She missed the pressure of a pillow under her head, the security of a blanket tucked in close around her. The bag was too big, for one thing; she found herself bouncing around inside it. And every time she moved, the layer of warm air which she’d built up around her body, and which stuck there in microgravity, tended to squirt away, out of the bag, leaving her chilled.
When she managed to relax, she had a feeling of falling. Once she almost drifted off, but then her arms came floating up, and a hand touched her face …
She let her eyes slide open.
She was inside her sleep locker, at the base of the Mission Module. The locker was little bigger than a cupboard,