OFFICE MEMORANDUM e@ STANFORD UNIVERSITY © OFFICE MEMORANDUM e STANFORD UNIVERSITY © OFFICE MEMORANDUM

WAR 20 1969:

To :

FROM

SUBJECT:

Date: March 20, 1969

J. Lederberg

> E. Levinthal

Return Mars Sample Study

I received a phone call from Mr, R. H. Olds, Lockheed, Sunnyvale, on

March 7th. He wished to discuss a proposal he is preparing in response

to a NASA RFP. The purpose of the proposal is to study a range of

missions whose accomplishment would be enhanced by the development of a
nuclear rocket stage. It was felt that no one mission could justify the
development but that perhaps a sufficient collection of scientific goals could
be found. One such goal to be studied was a return sample from Mars.

This is to cover opportunities from 1975 onward. My impression is that

a fairly extensive study is being asked for. He didn't know which NASA

office was issuing the RFP.

I expressed to him my concern that any resources were being devoted

to such a study (referring only to the Mars return sample segment of the
study). Even optimistic projections of the knowledge of the planet that
will be obtained from prior US missions ('69, '71, and '73) could not
justify the planning of such a mission for 1975. Even a few thousand
dollars spent in this coming fiscal year on such a study, in competition
with the pressing near term needs of the '71 and '73 missions, postpones
further into the future the time when we would have enough information
to justify carrying out such a mission. Such a mission would have to
be preceded by a more elaborate lander than is contemplated in '73.

It is therefore not cost effective to devote any resources to its study
now - it is, in fact, counter-productive.

a

ECL/mla

 

WNGNVYOWAW 301dIO @ ALISHTAINN GHOANVIS © WNANVYOWAW 351dd0 © ALISHSAINN QGYOANVL

QVWIFLNI ADD

/

—_

QONVYOWIW FdIddO © ALISYZAINN CYOINVIS @