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A3 Nation National news briefs A17 THE BOSTON GLOBE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 199!) NASA reexamkes Mars program Accelerated trip schedule imperiled By David Abel GLOBE CORRESPONDENT 1 JS 2 x. -1 Chaisson and other analysts could not point to any plausible rationale for why so many missions to Mars have not succeeded. Mostly, they said, the poor showing represents the tricky nature of shooting a small capsule to a distant point and sending reams of data back to Earth. But the difficulty in dispatching robots to the Red Planet does not bode well for NASA's unofficial goal of sending astronauts to Mars within two decades, analysts said. The Mars Polar Lander as well as the Climate Orbiter were to conduct crucial experiments to gauge whether humans could survive on Mars.

implication for human space flight is significant," said Frank Sitzen, editor of the National Space Society's AD ASTRA magazine, which advocates the further exploration of space. "It pushes back a launch date because there may not be sufficient information. And it could make making a decision that much harder with so many robotic failures." this fall. In September, after scientists failed to convert measurements into metric units, NASA lost its Mars Climate Orbiter. The spacecraft flew too close to the planet and burned up in the Martian atmosphere.

Unlike the Climate Orbiter, the Polar Lander's trajectory was on the correct course before NASA lost contact with the spacecraft as it entered the atmosphere. Despite criticism of NASA's "faster, cheaper, better" policy, which is designed in part to keep the costs of error manageable, this most recent string of failures is not isolated. Mars is something of a Bermuda Triangle for spacecraft. Since 1962, 11 of 25 previous US and Russian missions to Mars have failed and four were unable to complete their missions, according to NASA. "The joke going around on e-mail is that the Martians must have better missile defenses than we have," said Eric Chaisson, a physics professor at Tufts University.

"It's hard to believe so many failed. But it's a real puzzle." spacecraft's 416-million mile journey have eliminated all simple explanations for why they have not heard from the probe since its descent Friday into the Martian atmosphere. Two smaller probes that were to have separated from the main craft and then slammed into the Martian surface have also been silent. After six attempts to make contact with the missing spacecraft, engineers have used various tests to rule out such mishaps as an awry antenna, a faulty radio and some other technical glitches. NASA officials said they will conduct further tests over the next two weeks.

"We listened to the relay receiver, and it didn't receive any information," said Mike Ravine, a spokesman for Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, which built and maintains all of the cameras on the Mars probe. "That was the last plausible opportunity to hear something. And we didn't" The Mars Polar Lander was the second research probe sent unsuccessfully to Mars As scientists despair of contacting the $165 million Mars Polar Lander, NASA officials say the spacecraft's silence will probably have unfortunate echoes for the space agency, delaying future missions to Mars and smothering hopes of sending humans to the Red Planet early in the next centiiry. Plans to send two missions every 26 months to Mars may be the first victims of the apparent failure of the lander and the loss this fall of a Mars orbiter, according to NASA officials and space policy analysts. The setback to the Mars program could result in missing the scheduled 2001 launch of another orbiter and lander as well as delaying a mission to bring sample rocks to Earth by 2008.

"We're not going to rush into this, and we're not ruling anything out now," said Doug Isbell, spokesman for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington. "We have to take a look at if we are being too aggressive. We have to look at a lot of things." Scientists and engineers reviewing the AP PHOTO Project manager Richard Cook Heft) and fiplantfci Rfoliarfl 7nralr vfnwiifl marine uuii.n a tlia Tilt Itjhaii 1 l-Inn 1 ah imatm.flair Police chief resigning after Seattle protests A xTi rti By Jim Hahn ASSOCIATED PRESS REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR DeWayne Chartier and other survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor attended a memorial service in Alameda, yesterday. It was the 58th anniversary of the attack, which killed nearly 2,500 Americans. Trump, Knauss must learn to walk if they run SEATTLE The city's police chief announced his resignation yesterday, becoming the first political casually of the violent protests that disrupted the World Trade Organization conference.

Police Chief Norm Stamper had been harshly criticized by civic leaders, police officers, and others for his handling of the demonstrations last week that cost downtown merchants nearly $20 million in lost sales and property damage. The protests got so out of hand that the National Guard was called in and a curfew was imposed. Stamper, 54, said he had planned to announce his retirement in January but did so now in hopes of removing politics from the examination of what went wrong. Mayor Paul Schell has also come under fire. But at a news conference with Stamper at his side, he repeated that he will not resign.

Stamper said he will cooperate in any investigation of the police department's role in dealing with the demonstrations. However, he declined to answer several questions yesterday about the rioting. He did say some accounts putting blame on him were inaccurate. "I don't accept the label of either victim or martyr," he said. The mayor praised Stamper for his "sense of duty and sense of responsibility," and said he had tried to talk Stamper out of leaving when he was told of the chiefs decision Sunday.

Stamper's resignation, which takes effect in March, also follows nearly nine months of turmoil over the integrity of the police department's internal investigations section. Relations between Stamper and Seattle's 1,200 uniformed officers have often been strained during his nearly six-year tenure. "He has not been in touch with the rank and file," police union president Mike Edwards said. "His style is to not have a hands-on approach, and I think that has been a mistake." Edwards said police officers lacked crowd-control equipment such as smoke grenades and tear gas last week, and found themselves on the streets for days with little food or rest Police critics have also said that tear gas and rubber bullets were fired indiscriminately and that innocent workers, shoppers, 'and residents were swept up in the arrests of more than 500 people Nov. 30 and Dec.

1. There were no serious injuries, but downtown merchants have reported more than $2 million in property damage and $17 million in lost sales. However, the police also had many supporters. Hubert Locke, a criminal-justice specialist at the University of Washington, said police "had an impossible situation to begin with" during the WTO meeting. The judgment of most people is that the police maintained, with some exceptions, a fairly professional stance," he said.

City Councilman Richard Conlin said he was on the streets last week and found that officers were acting responsibly. Conlin praised Stamper as a community-oriented chief who had improved relations with minorities. Stamper also revealed in his letter of resignation to the mayor that because of the disorder, President Clinton nearly canceled his visit after months of calling the conference vital to US free-trade interests. "We all had a very serious conversation about whether all the venues the president would visit were secure," he said. By Lynda Gorov GLOBE STAFF LOS ANGELES -Her shoes mean he's not serious, not yet at least.

For two days, while presidential maybe Donald Trump made nice in Los Angeles, his model girl- i (, friend teetered beside him on pointy, strappy stilettos, bhe stood on them, she walked on them, she hardly winced when the crowd circling Trump yesterday gained momentum and she briefly fell behind. But if Trump wants to keep pace with the other presidential contenders, model Melania Knauss will at some point have to forgo fashion for comfort. No one can run in J- Trump, looking surprisingly tall in a city where male celebrities tend to be shorter than expected, crammed a lot of his opinions into two days. At the L'Ermitage hotel, he riled some Reform Party members by dismissing their platform as unformed and refusing to embrace campaign-finance reform, one of their primary aims. On the "Tonight Show," the billionaire stressed that his proposed onetime tax on anyone with a net worth exceeding $10 million would drive down the national debt, heat up the economy even more, and keep capital in the country.

Leno, however, could not resist noting that Trump has never been elected president of anything, not even his fifth-grade class. Trump responded by listing the positions he has held at his companies, then laughingly agreed with Leno that he ran "a dictatorship." Citing polls of his own that show him a strong contender, Trump said he expects to reach a decision by February. Other polls, however, show him trailing potential primary opponents Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. Trailing is something Melania Knauss will have to get used to, unless one of Trump's newly hired political consultants suggests a sensible pair of pumps. Then, at least, the schoolchildren who greeted Trump with gleeful shouts but stared blankly at her might recognize her as the country's first potential First Girlfriend.

her shoes. And in Los Angeles, The Donald I insisted anew tnat he is seriously contemplating a run at the Reform Party nomination. In California for the first time since forming a presidential exploratory committee, the famous developer and the exquisite but relatively unknown girlfriend he likes to AP PHOTO Donald Trump and his girlfriend, Melania Knauss, listened to a recording of Nazi propaganda during a tour of the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles yesterday. describe as a "supermodel" had a get-acquainted session with party leaders, dropped in on "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, and took an abbreviated tour of the Museum of Tolerance. Sounding like a candidate (lambasting the competition, Patrick Buchanan in par shaking hands (very uncandidate-like).

Before a news conference Monday, volunteers distributed sanitizing lotion to reporters, the bottle top emblazoned with Trump's Web address (www.donaldjtrump2000.com). Trump's presence not to mention Knauss' drew nearly 100 Reform Party leaders and activists to a Beverly Hills hotel, where rooms start at $300 a night, and more than a half-dozen TV cameras to the Museum of Tolerance, where admission is for adults, $5.50 for students. He re quested both sessions, the former resulting in a raucous A with party members, the latter in a forum to announce his disdain for intolerance and distance himself from party rival Patrick Buchanan. "I think Pat Buchanan should come here absolutely," Trump said after spending an hour seeing a presentation on the Holocaust and on bigotry in America today. "This would be a very logical stop for Pat Buchanan.

His views are so far off almost anti-everything." ticular), acting like a candidate (thanking museum officials by name), and looking like one, too (conservative navy suit), Trump even naa reo-wnite-ana-Diue press Daages printed up for the events. Material from Vie Associated Press was included in th is report Still, he showea his usual aversion to.