About the Author
Charles W. Gehrke, Ph.D. retired from the University of Missouri in 1987 from positions as Professor of Biochemistry, Manager of the Experiment Station Chemical Laboratories, and Director of the University Interdisciplinary Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer facility. He is the author of over 260 scientific publications in analytical chemistry and biochemistry. His research interests include the development of quantitative, high-resolution gas-liquid and liquid chromatographic methods for amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, major and modified nucleosides in RNA, DNA, biological markers in the detection of cancer and chromatography of biologically important molecules. Over sixty masters and doctoral students have received their advanced degrees in analytical biochemistry under the direction of Professor Gehrke.
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LUNAR AND MARS BASES
Introduction Studies of bases on the Moon and human trips to Mars have been considered seriously by space exploration advocates from the 1950s, when Werhner von Braun and his colleagues began the development of the systems that eventually became Apollo. In 1970, NASA presented a plan to President Nixon, which envisioned building a reusable Earth to space transportation system, constructing an Earth-orbiting space station, expanding the Apollo foothold on the Moon and sending the first voyages to Mars within the subsequent 15 years. The plan was rejected as too expensive and NASA was directed instead to proceed with the development of the first element of the plan, the Space Shuttle. For the past several years, NASA has been developing Space Station Freedom, which would have been the second step in the von Braun strategy; however, the resumption of human exploration of the Moon and the later exploration of Mars are still on the drawing boards.
The Office of Exploration (NASA Headquarters), under the direction of Dr. Michael Griffin, currently [1993] has the responsibility in NASA of leading the development of concepts for the human exploration of the Moon and Mars. As in previous studies, there is a strong NASA interest in the definition of the transportation system, which typically is the most costly and difficult portion of space missions. In particular, most recent concepts for lunar and Mars exploration require a heavy lift launch vehicle, at least as large as the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon, and possibly larger. Such rockets exist today only in the Russian space program. In contrast to other past studies, however, there is much more emphasis being placed on the definition of surface activities for both the Moon and Mars. As these are the "productive" facilities in human planetary exploration, it is an appropriate emphasis. It requires that the scientists, developers, technologists, and other advocates of lunar and Mars activities be involved with the definition of their tasks, in order to establish "requirements" which must be met by the hardware systems.
The exploration of the Moon and Mars has proceeded in the past without the need to establish human bases. Prior to Apollo, U.S. Range, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft probed and surveyed the Moon by automatic means, as did the Russian Lunakhod and Luna missions (the Luna missions returned lunar samples to Earth). The Apollo missions revolutionized our understanding of the Moon, with only short-term stays. The automated missions that have studied Mars (Mariner, Viking) did not require humans on the planet to make significant new discoveries. Why now do we believe that humans should participate in these missions and that extended human presence is important?
