WASHINGTON -- A healthy majority of the public is ready to give the thumbs-up on sending U.S. astronauts to Mars. They are also backing the building of a space station. Those are among the findings of a wide-ranging survey released by the National Science Board, a governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Called Science and Engineering Indicators 2000, the two-volume report is a biennial status check on scientific and technological issues facing the country.

One section is devoted to public perceptions of space exploration. Both NSF findings, as well as poll results from other reputable survey groups, review the past decade of public feelings about space.

In a Roper poll highlighted in the newly released NSF study, respondents were asked what they thought of the space program. More than half chose the response, "exciting and worthwhile"; 27 percent answered "only necessary to keep up with other nations"; and only 18 percent said it was "a waste of time and money." In response to another question, nearly half said that, in the future, the space program will make life on Earth better because of technological advances; 17 percent thought it would be worse because the money should have been spent on something else; and 32 percent thought the space program would not make life any better or worse.

There is a sizeable gender gap in the public's assessment of space exploration. In fact, no other issue in the NSF survey has such a large disparity in opinion between the sexes. Men are more likely than women to champion the benefits of space exploration over the costs. The gap was 14 percentage points in 1999.

In every year but two (1990 and 1992), a majority of men interviewed for the survey agreed that the benefits from space exploration outweigh the costs. The percentage stood at 57 percent in 1999, compared with 43 percent for women. In contrast, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, half or more of the women who participated in the survey thought that the costs exceeded the benefits. That is no longer true; the percentage dropped below 50 percent in 1997 and stayed there in 1999.

Those with more formal education are more likely than others to say that the benefits of space exploration exceed the cost. In 1999, only 40 percent of those with less than a high school education agreed that the benefits were greater than the costs, compared with 49 percent of those who graduated from high school and 60 percent of those with at least a bachelors degree.

But those classified as attentive to science and technology -- or to space exploration -- are more likely than the public at large to believe that the benefits exceed the costs. At least 60 percent of each attentive group put the benefits ahead of the costs, compared with about half of the public at large.

Finally, about two-thirds of the public favor sending a U.S. piloted mission to Mars according to a Roper poll in 1996, fortified by the findings of another survey taken by Southern Focus in 1998. According to NSF survey results, building a space station also garners strong public support.

Overall, the National Science Board's report details growing evidence of how fundamental science has contributed to a stronger U.S. economy. Moreover, the analysis underscores how information technology has had a major impact on all facets of society. However, the report also notes that parts of American society are bereft of information technology advantages, creating a "digital divide."

The findings of the study have been presented to the President and Congress.