BOULDER, Colo. -- The United States and the Soviet Union could compensate for burdening the world with enough nuclear weapons to blow up the planet by engaging in a joint effort to explore Mars, said scientific futurist Carl Sagan.
Sagan, director of the Laboratory of Planetary Studiesat Cornell University, spoke Sunday at the third national conference on The Case for Mars.
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA's administrator, is to deliver the keynote address Monday at the conference, which continues through Wednesday. Fletcher last month announced the creation of an Office of Exploration to work toward 'expanding the human presence beyond Earth.'
Sagan said a joint U.S.-Soviet mission to Mars could raise NASA from 'something close to the butt of ridicule' because of the Challenger disaster to prominence once again.
'Since 1978, almost a decade, the United States has not launched one, not one, spacecraft to the moon and the planets,' Sagan said. 'That is a quantitative measure of the decline of the civilian space program in the United States.'
Sagan said the advantages of a Martian probe would spread to many sectors of the nation.
'The scientific appeal is enormous. Mars is a world of wonders, the most Earth-like environment in the solar system, a place that has undergone massive environmental change that has great implications for Earth,' he said.
Sagan said Mars exploration would help NASA, whose decline was fueled by the launch of the space shuttle Challenger and the death of its astronauts.
'NASA has been converted from the envy of the world to something close to the butt of ridicule,' he said. 'American contributions to the study of the cosmos have been so significant that it's a pity to permit this to occur.'
Sagan noted the United States and the Soviet Union have burdened the world with 60,000 nuclear waapons.
'Isn't there some way to use this technology to blaze a trail on behalf of every human being to the planet Mars and beyond?' he asked.
