THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10021

 

June 23, 1987

Jk&

JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. James L. Gooding

SN2

NASA Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas 77058

Dear Dr. Gooding:

I am responding to your letter of May 27th which reminded
me of prior correspondence going back to last February concern-
ing Mars-sample-science. Although I was a very enthusiastic
member of the Mars Viking Lander experiment team, I have more
or less retired from space science in the interval and I do
not contemplate playing an active role in a program that will
still take some years to reach fruition. So I was not sure
how pertinent my remarks would be.

I do however have a single policy point that I would like
to leave for the record.

Certainly the scientific value of return samples from Mars
would be enormous for a wide range of disciplines. This is
sometimes confused with a manned return mission and I hope
that you will not fall into that trap since it will necessitate
a vast multiplication of resources in a way that will add very
little to the scientific utility. On the other hand it seems
to me absolutely vital that we secure samples from a variety
of locations and I am obviously speaking to the necessity of
a,rover which would be able to explore a variety of terrains

<——and secure samples that are representative of a number of
Unhmanei quite different sites within its purview. I don't have the
———— original copy of the announcement and if there is time I
would like to have a look at it and perhaps I would have more
to say in response.

Yours sincerely,

J ua Lederberg