Presently the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program is undergoing considerable redesign changes. Further ICAMSR communications will be added when necessary.

The following are past communications that ICAMSR has received from government officials regarding Mars Sample Return:

• October 19, 2000 — The complete Rebuttal to Dr. Zubrin's comments in The Planetary Report entitled "Putative Martian Life No Threat To Earth?".

Mars Society President Robert Zubrin recently tried unsuccessfully to make a case that there is no need for planetary protection — especially from Mars, and that it is safe to return Martian soil samples and safe to send humans to Mars. He makes this assertion with absolutely no scientific evidence. The Planetary Society gave Dr. Robert Zubrin's comments a large forum to present his views in the form of a two-page Op Ed which presented his case in a spectacular fashion in their bimonthly publication THE PLANETARY REPORT in the July/August issue. I thought as the founder of ICAMSR I should respond to his comments and at the least get the opportunity of a fair rebuttal. I sent the letter to the Planetary Society's magazine THE PLANETARY REPORT. My highly edited response was published in the September/October issue of THE PLANETARY REPORT. I was astonished to read they had used only one small paragraph and then spelled my name wrong with no mention of ICAMSR although I signed myself as such. It is obvious that the Planetary Society as well as NASA refuse to acknowledge ICAMSR as a legitimate group by simply avoiding the mention of us. Was the misspelling of my name intentional? One has to wonder!
• April 13, 2000 — Open letter to Dr. John Rummel, NASA Planetary Protection Officer

We currently have not yet received a reply from Dr. John Rummel.
• November 9, 1999 — US Chairman of the House Science Committee
• June 3, 1999 — Letter from the Office Of The Vice President