INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SCIENCE

Now the time has come for mankind to carry out detailed studies of Mars which is known to be a planet in many respects similar to the Earth. It is necessary that man should understand the origin and development of the Solar System in order to understand the history of our own planet and the reasons of the appearance of life on it.

New knowledge about Mars might help us to explain the multitude of natural phenomena occuring on earth and enable us to predict these phenomena, as well as control them. This would help mankind begin exploring the Solar System's resources in the not so distant future.

The most representative community of space research — the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), now incorporating some eighty space agencies, institutes and industrial enterprises in 36 countries — considers the preparation of manned and unmanned expeditions to Mars to be one of its main priorities.

Russia has proposed that a broad international programme of detailed study of Mars and its natural satellites should be carried out. Scientists and space experts suggested that automatic stations for Mars' expeditions should be designed and produced by Russia, and the scientific instruments for them should be jointly prepared by ten countries: six East and four West European. It was reported that the programme would enable us to deliver to Mars the automatic station for global studies of the planet from the orbits of its artificial satellites, determine the most promising areas for detailed investigations and study the planet's atmosphere by landing special vehicles as well as balloons.

A new generation of the Phobos space probes has been developed for this purpose in Russia. It should be noted that these probes are sophisticated programmed space robots. They are believed to be the basic means for the expedition to Mars. It is planned to launch six unmanned spacecrafts. The spacecraft to be launched to Mars is to make a soft landing on the planet and send a self-propelled vehicle, so-called rover, to gather soil samples and specimens of Mars rock. It is to travel several hundred kilometers on Mars' surface, encountering storms, frosts and heat.

Besides being a major step in the progress of space science, the implementation of the programmes described may serve as a transitional stage from the study of space to its exploration for the benefit of earth.

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