NEO near-Earth orbit S/F = superfreighter (an OTV with a transportation capacity of about SPS = space power satellite 2 75 T/KM2 The applicable regimes for each of the reusable launch vehicles is - A Manned Mission to Jupiter It is apparent that the scientific, technological and operational advances focused into space industrialization will greatly enhance Man's abilities to explore the solar system probably beginning in the late 1990s. Above all, the ability for extended missions with complex tasks and objectives should have been established by that time, enabling such mission(s) to be undertaken at acceptable cost using then existing capabilities. Complex mission objectives warrant manned participation. Until then, unmanned probes will contribute to scientific knowledge of intrinsic value, as well as knowledge needed for the planning of manned missions. If a manned mission were to be planned for the 1990s, Jupiter and its satellite system would, in my opinion, be the goal of greatest scientific interest, as well as most commensurate with the criteria for an advanced manned mission and the then expected capabilities. The prime objective of the mission should be the search for life in Jupiter unless this issue can be decided beforehand on the basis of data provided by unmanned probes, which is doubtful in view of the complexity of the task. Jupiter provides basically a planetogenically autark environment. Unless its atmosphere can be shown to contain excessive amounts of heavy water, certain atmospheric layers could harbor anaerobic life using chemosynthetic metabolisms other than oxygen metabolism. The ultimate potential of anaerobic evolution was cut off at an early stage, due to the rise of aerobic life through photosynthesis. On Jupiter, this principal bio-evolutionary alternative to our own life evolution may have had four billion years to progress. In my opinion, this makes Jupiter the most fascinating goal of future manned planetary exploration. Enclosed are abstract and text of my paper, "An Approaching Crisis in NASA-University Relations," which I hope will be of use to your Committee in its consideration of our future national space program. As my paper deals with management issues, and especially the competition between university groups and NASA centers for space-science contracts, it will probably be quite different from most of those submitted to you. However, I believe it overwhelmingly important that university research groups, which have always been the source of most of our best space science, continue to be supported at a viable level, whatever the particulars of our space program might be. I therefore hope that your Committee might give these management issues the same thorough attention that the technological or scientific aspects of the space program deserve. can, I will be happy to cooperate further, in any way that I Yours sincerely, Senge Fuld George B. Field, Director GBF/pb |