Archive Report
Archive Report
Debate over a Manned Flight to Mars
Task Force Proposal and the Cost Estimates
President nixon soon will decide whether the United States should adopt the goal of landing men on Mars before the end of the century. The President has before him a report by a special Space Task Group whose primary recommendation was that this country undertake such a mission. It is now up to Nixon to decide whether to accept one of the task group's suggested Mars landing dates—1983, 1986, or sometime in the 1990s—or to suspend judgment, at least for the time being. Whatever decision the President makes, it is sure to be preceded by vigorous debate among the public and in Congress.
The Space Task Group report, made public Sept. 17,1 gave ...