IF YOU want to send a robot to Mars, two space agencies are better than one. That鈥檚 what NASA and the European Space Agency have decided 鈥� so long as US law doesn鈥檛 block the cooperation.
NASA鈥檚 science chief Ed Weiler said last week that the agency had agreed with ESA in principle to join forces in sending robotic spacecraft to Mars. If the plan goes forward, both agencies could fund missions like ESA鈥檚 ExoMars rover, to launch in 2016, and a tentative plan to bring a Martian sample back to Earth in the 2020s. Weiler was speaking at a briefing about a delay for NASA鈥檚 costly Mars Science Laboratory rover.
It鈥檚 the US that could be the deal breaker. Under the Bush administration, the regulations have been used to restrict exports of spacecraft components and information.
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鈥淚f the US government attitudes about ITAR of the past eight years continue, it will get in the way of Mars cooperation,鈥� says Louis Friedman of the non-profit Planetary Society. President-Elect Barack Obama has promised to review the rules, and Friedman is optimistic that the government鈥檚 stance will change.
