Overreaching, Rethinking
As 1999 began, NASA surged forward. NASA now planned an advanced rover, the kind analogous to one first discussed after Viking, which would traverse great distances and aid in identifying and collecting soil and rock samples. The sample would be reclaimed later and returned for analysis in Earth laboratories. The multistage mission was complicated and demanding. NASA knew it, but the collective attitude was exceedingly positive. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory appointed Bill O’Neill as Mars Sample Return project manager. An experienced leader, he enthusiastically began planning for the actions ahead. O’Neil called MSR “the most exciting, complex robotic space mission ever,” a mission that was “historic.”1
Clinton’s policy toward NASA continued to be mixed. His budget, announced at the beginning of February, cut NASA by 1% from the preceding year. However, space science got another boost of $3.6 %.2 Mars exploration was obviously NASA’s lead planetary program. For Goldin, it was much more. Mars was the destination about which he had been thinking since he was a boy.3
Goldin set up a “Decadal Planning Team” and enlisted the space science and human spaceflight directors in its support. He also established an activity called HEDS—for Human Exploration and Development of Space. This enterprise aimed at getting various parts of NASA to think about robotic and human Mars exploration. They would address, for example, the kinds of sensors that robotic
spacecraft to Mars might carry to help future astronauts.4 He instructed the Decadal Planning Team to think beyond the space station. “I want to get people to Mars for the right reasons,” he said.5 He truly believed that human spaceflight to Mars would be possible in the not-too-distant future, and it was time to plan for that eventuality. Toward that end, he expected the robotic and human programs to join forces. But Goldin’s vision was cut short by unexpected and painful reality. NASA suffered a major setback in its Mars program and had to step back, rethink, and formulate a different strategy—in fact, a new program.