Vera Hirschberg
  Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                   January 25, 1991
  (Phone:   202/453-8425)
  
  
  RELEASE:  91-13
  
  NASA, NSF TO DEVELOP ANTARCTIC SPACE ANALOG
  
  
       The remote and barren continent of Antarctica will be used 
  as a productive testbed for technologies and systems that may 
  enable people eventually to build a permanent outpost on the Moon 
  and journey to Mars, thanks to an agreement signed today by NASA 
  and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
  
       The agencies have signed a Memorandum of Agreement which 
  will benefit NSF's operations in Antarctica and enable NASA to 
  prepare for future missions to the Moon and Mars by conducting 
  basic scientific research and testing technologies and systems to 
  support human life.  These activities will build on NSF's more 
  than 33 years of experience in scientific research in the harsh 
  Antarctic environment.
  
       Scientists believe that Antarctica's climate, terrain, 
  temperature and isolation provide an environment on Earth that 
  most closely parallels the conditions of isolation and stress to 
  be faced on long-duration human missions in space.  The Antarctic 
  space analog will thus provide a unique and accessible testbed to 
  develop prototype lunar and Mars systems and technologies.
  
       Under the agreement, NASA and NSF will pursue a broad range 
  of research in areas related to space science, and will 
  demonstrate technologies in such areas as life support and 
  environmental control; energy generation and storage; automation 
  and robotics; telescience; and human behavior and performance.
  
       This research will benefit NSF's ongoing Antarctic 
  activities.  Advance technologies to improve scientific operations and 
  improve living and working conditions, minimize 
  environmental impacts, and hold down operations and logistics 
  costs will be early examples of how space technologies can help 
  solve problems on Earth.
  
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       NASA and NSF have a long history of cooperative research 
  projects in Antarctica including programs ranging from meteorite 
  recovery to cosmic microwave background observations.  The two 
  agencies also have done cooperative research on the origin of 
  microbial ecosystems in the ice-covered lakes of Antarctica's dry 
  valleys.  This research relates to studies of the possible 
  evolution of life on Mars in the distant past.
  
       Signers of the agreement include representives of NSF's 
  Directorate of Geosciences and NASA's Office of Aeronautics, 
  Exploration and Technology and Office of Space Science and 
  Applications.
  
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