Revolution in space exploration over next 20 years predicted by lecturer

The next 20 years of space exploration will represent a revolution such as we have never seen before, according to Mr Kevin Nolan, regional co-ordinator to Ireland for the Planetary Society.

He was speaking yesterday during lectures on the theme "The NASA Origins Programme - The Scientific Search for the Origin, Evolution and Destiny of Everything", at the National Gallery and the ILAC library in Dublin, a Science Week Ireland event.

"We will learn more about our history and destiny in the cosmos than ever before," he said.

NASA is currently implementing a 20-year mission called the Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan, of which the Origins initiative is part.

Until the late 1980s NASA was primarily an agency run for political reasons, he said. But with the end of the Cold War a choice had to be made - either dismantle NASA altogether, or find a way to make it work.

It was decided NASA should take on the big questions, how the earth was formed, how life came into being, whether there is life elsewhere in the cosmos, and what resources are at our disposal in the solar system. This was the birth of the NASA Origins Programme.

A Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan was published in November 1997 by NASA, detailing future activities. Two probes are to be sent to Mars every 26 months for the next 10 years or so, culminating in a rock-gathering and sample-return mission in 2005.

The Mars Polar Lander and Climate Orbiter will be launched next month and in January 1999 respectively.

A Next Generation Space Telescope will be launched in about seven years with 10 times the light- gathering power of the Hubble Space Telescope. Dozens of robotic probes will be sent to Jupiter's moon, Europa, Pluto, and to establish a virtual presence throughout the solar system.

Also in the pipeline, start date 2007, is a Terrestrial Planet Finder telescope, a giant telescope the length of a football field, which will be launched into space and will be capable of determining if there are actually Earth-like planets orbiting the nearest few hundred stars.

Details of the various NASA programmes can be found at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/ http://planetary.org/