ternational space cooperation. Other countries, both allies and rivals, could contribute crewmembers, precursor missions, services such as propellant delivery, funds, spacecraft components, or even entire spacecraft. For all the countries involved, piloted Mars missions would “provide an effective catalyst for significant advances in automation, robotics, life sciences[,] and space technologies. . .[and], through direct experience, address and answer key questions about long-duration human space flight and the role of human beings in space exploration.”
NASA did not much care for the Ride Report; in fact, the agency at first refused to publish it. Perhaps this was because Ride acknowledged that NASA could not hope to lead in all areas of space endeavor. In addition, Ride proposed a manned Mars program after Space Station with no intervening manned moon program, placed robotic programs on a par with their piloted counterparts, and implied that NASA might not need a new piloted space initiative after it finished building its Space Station.
In addition, her report’s matter-of-fact tone probably annoyed some within NASA. Ride, who by the time she completed her report was nearing the end of her nine-year NASA career, felt free to express herself. She was quick to point out when NASA’s actions apparently belied its enthusiasm for piloted missions beyond LEO; for example, she noted the uncomfortable fact that Fletcher had committed only 0.03% of NASA’s budget to the new Office of Exploration. This, Ride wrote, gave the appearance that Code Z had been established merely to quell critics who had complained that NASA had no long-term goals.
“Piloted Sprint Missions to Mars,” AAS 87-202, J. Niehoff and S. Hoffman, The Case for Mars III: Strategies for Exploration – General Interest and Overview, Carol Stoker, editor, 1989, pp. 309-324; paper presented at the Case for Mars III conference in Boulder, Colorado, 18-22 July 1987.
Leadership and America’s Future in Space, Sally K. Ride, NASA, August 1987.
Piloted Sprint Missions to Mars, Report No. SAIC-87/1908, Study No. 1-120-449-M26, Science Applications International Corporation, November 1987.
Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950-2000, David S. F. Portree, Monographs in Aerospace History #21, NASA SP-2001-4521, NASA History Division, February 2001.
Beyond Apollo chronicles space history through missions and programs that didn’t happen. Comments are welcome. Off-topic comments might be deleted.
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