1. Overview 



NASA is engaged in a long-term quest for knowledge about life in the uni- 

 verse: its origin, evolution, and future, its distribution on Earth, in our 

 solar system, in our galaxy, and beyond. As part of this quest, the Agency 

 is committed to assuring the safety of space explorers: the humans who will touch 

 down on the surface of the Moon, Mars, and other planets. 



To shape an agenda to meet its goals, the Agency is considering several major new 

 initiatives, outlined by the National Commission on Space and most recently by a 

 NASA task force chaired by astronaut Sally K. Ride (1, 2): 



• Mission to Planet Earth: an enterprise that would use space technology to study 

 Earth systems on a global scale 



• Exploration of the Solar System: a mission that would investigate a Main Belt 

 asteroid and a comet, explore Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, and culminate in 

 robotic surveys of Mars 



• Outpost on the Moon: an effort that would draw upon the accomplishments of 

 the Apollo Program and continuing research to establish a permanent human 

 colony on the Moon 



• Humans to Mars: a program that would employ the information collected by 

 robotic missions to land Americans on Mars early in the next century and to 

 establish an outpost on the planet within the following decade. 



The most current statements about the Nation's future in space include the 

 National Space Policy, issued by President Ronald Reagan in February 1988. In this 

 document, the President reaffirmed the importance of missions, such as the per- 

 manently manned Space Station, that would maintain the Nation's preeminence in 

 space research and prepare a basis for the expansion of human activity into the 

 solar system. 



The Space Station, scheduled to begin operations in the mid-1990's, and all the 

 future initiatives under consideration by NASA have important life sciences compo- 

 nents. A number of Agency programs work to resolve the life sciences issues cen- 

 tral to these missions. NASA's Life Sciences Division is responsible for many of 

 these programs, which take their lead from the larger organization and conduct 

 research into issues related to the safety of human space flight and into the origin, 

 evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. The research programs are 

 grouped into two basic areas: Space Medicine and Biology, and Biological Systems. 

 Flight Programs, a third area in the Division, is responsible for facilitating the con- 

 duct of Life Sciences research in space. 



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