A bibliography of government documents on extraterrestrial life: 1957–1976

Abstract

Although American manned exploration of space has come to a temporary halt (and will not resume until the Space Shuttle flights begin in 1979), and Russian manned space flight continues at a relatively slow pace, unmanned probes of the solar system continue. rrJ Public interest in these programs has been, for the most part, very low. However, one program has captured considerable attention; it is coupled with a long-time fascination one might even say obsession with the planet Mars. Ever since the astronomer Percival Lowell claimed that Schiaparelli’s Martian canali were irrigation ditches, the general public has been intrigued by the possibility of intelligent life on Mars. Innumerable scenarios have been constructed by hundreds of science-fiction writers. Orsen Welles managed to scare the wits out of a large number of people with a radio dramatization of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds one Halloween evening. The interest in the possible existence of life on Mars or in the poqible existence of any form of life not native to earth continues unabated. Many astronomers, who once believed that life was unique to earth, are now convinced that intelligent life-forms exist throughout the galaxy. Biochemists have performed experiments showing the relative ease with which the chemical building-blocks of life are created, and radio-astronomers have discovered a number of complex organic molecules in interstellar space.rzl On July 20, 1976, the seventh anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon, the U.S. landed an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Viking 1, and its companion Viking 2, were designed to perform a variety of experiments, but their primary role is to determine if some form of life exists or existed -on Mars.r31 As of this writing the results have been ambiguous. But the excitement and interest generated by the Viking landings was extensive. A quick glance through Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature under the subject headings of “Life on Other Planets”, “Mars”, and “Spaceflights to Mars” for the last five years shows an enormous number of popular and semi-technical articles on the subject of extraterrestrial life. A literature search by this author of Science Citation Index and Applied Science and Technology Index in June 1976 revealed more than thrity-five articles and papers of a technical nature on this subject published between 1972 and 1976. There have also been at least ten books published on the subjects of exobiology and intelligent extraterrestrial life since 1972, including Sagan’s book The Cosmic Connection (1973), Ponnamperuma’s and Cameron’s Interstellar Communication (1974) and Bracewell’s recent book The Galactic Club (1975). The purpose of this bibliography is to bring to the attention of academic libraries and the scientific community the existence of a body of literature on this subject that is often overlooked: government documents. Billions of dollars have been spent over the last twenty years on space exploration;r’r the Viking project alone cost almost $1 billion. Is1 In the process a great number of documents have been generated by a number of departments, most notably the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.