A Publication of THEPLANETA SOCIETY o ¢ 0 0 o o • 0-e Board of Directors FROI\II THE CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY EDITOR President Vice President Director. Laboratory for Planetary Professor of Planetary Studies. Cornell University Science, California Institute of Technology LO UIS FR IEDMAN Executive Director JOSEPH RYAN O'Me/veny & Myers MICHAEL COLLINS Apollo 11 astronaut STEVEN SPIELBERG . he way we explore planets is chang­ its 1994 budget a new Discovery class of director and producer THOMAS O. PAINE former Administrator, NASA; HENRY J. TANNER T ing. Gone are the days when we could missions to cost no more than $150 mil­ Chairman, National financial consultant Commission on Space build space-traveling, multipurpose vehi­ lion each and to be accomplished in three Board of Advisors cles, load them with a profusion of years or less. Whether or not Congress instruments and send them off to answer will fund these missions remains to be DIANE ACKERMAN HANS MARK poet and author Chancellor. a multitude of scientific questions. seen. University of Texas System RICHARD BERENDZEN The Cassini mission to the saturnian Meanwhile, there are other concepts for educator and astrophysicist JAMES MICHENER author system, if it survives the congressional small spacecraft missions, many of which JACQUES BLAMONT Chief Scientist. Centre MARVIN MINSKY budget process, will probably be the last grew out of papers presented at the Soci­ National dEludes Spatia/es. France Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts "flagship" mission launched for a long ety's workshop. Rather than bring you RAY BRADBURY Institute of Technology poet and author time. The United States is burdened by a summaries of each paper, we've asked a PHI LI P MORR ISON ARTHUR C. CLARKE Institute Professor, Massachusetts monstrous deficit, the new nations of the few participants to detail their ideas for author Institute of Technology CORNELIS DE JAGER former Soviet Union are reexamining their new missions. Professor of Space Research, PAUL NEWMAN The Astronomical Institute at actor commitments to space endeavors, the Eu­ Page 4-Doing More With Less: The Utrecht, the Netherlands JUN NISHIMURA ropean Space Agency is scaling back its New Way of Exploring the Solar System FRANK DRAKE former Director Genera/, Professor of Astronomy and Institute of Space and plans and Japan is starting slowly in its - There are many forces changing plane­ Astrophysics, University of Astronautical Science, Japan California. Santa Cruz BERNARD M. OLIVER development as a spacefaring power. tary exploration and many ways to re­ LEE A. DUBRIDGE Chief, SET! Program. For those of us who are curious about spond. former presidential NASA/Ames Research Center science advisor SALLY RIDE the planets, who want to witness humans Page S-To the Moon: Faster, Cheaper JOHN GARDNER Director. California Space founder, Common Cause walking on Mars, who want to see the ex­ -and Better- Decades after humans Institute, University of California, MARC GARNEAU San Diego, and former astronaut ploration of the solar system continue, it's riding Moon buggies cruised the Moon, Canadian astronaut ROALD Z. SAGDEEV time to get creative. We must find new NASA is planning to send small robots. GEORG IY GOLI TSYN former Director, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Institute for Space Research, Academy of Sciences of the USSR ways to send our robotic surrogates to Page 10-Starting Small on the Road ~f~~e[7ts% Sciences THEODORE M. HESBURGH other worlds. to Mars-Mars has long been a target of President Emeritus, HARRISON H. SCHMITT University of Notre Dame former US Senator. New Mexico. The Planetary Society recognized the exploration. There are ways to explore it and Apollo 17 astronaut SHI RLEY M. HUFSTEDLER shifting wind a couple of years ago, so last cheaply, yet effectively. educator and jurist S. ROSS TAYLOR GARRY E. HUNT Professoria l Fellow, fall we organized a workshop on micro­ Page 12-Japan Sets Out to the Moon space scientist, Australian National University, United Kingdom Canberra spacecraft for planetary exploration. We and Mars-Japan has taken its first steps SERGEI KAPITSA LEWIS THOMAS had expected to host perhaps a handful of into the solar system. Its next destinations Institute for Physical Problems, Chancellor. Memorial Sloan Academy of Sciences of the USSR Kettering Cancer Center scientists and engineers who, like us, want­ are the Moon and Mars. JAMES VAN ALLEN ed to find new ways to explore. But when Page 14-Small Missions ,to Asteroids: Professor of Physics, University of Iowa word of the workshop spread, we had The Threat and Future Exploration­ The Planetary Report (lSSN 0736-3680) is published six times yearly at dozens of people clamoring to come. The threat of asteroid impacts has raised the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106, (8 18) 793-5100. It is available to members of The They came from NASA centers, other interest in these small targets. Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US or Canada are $25 US dollars or $30 Canadian. Dues outside the US or Canada are $35 (US). space agencies, government laboratories, Page 16-Isaac Asimov-Society Presi·· Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON aerospace companies and universities. dent Carl Sagan remembers an old friend. Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Assistant Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Some were students hoping that jobs Page 17-World Watch-A new NASA Copy Editor, GLORI A JOYCE would be available when they graduate; Administrator rattles the status quo. Production Editor, MITCHELL BIRD Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH others were recent retirees who wanted to Page IS-News & Reviews-Our regular Viewpoints ex p r~sse d in columns or editorials are those of the authors and see the endeavor they began continue. columnist reviews the latest developments do not necessanly represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers or advisors. © 1992 by The Planetary Society. They brought eagerness and energy to in planetary science. In Canada. Second Class Mail Registration Number 9567 the workshop, and the Society served as a Page 19-5ociety Notes-Your Society COVER: The next wave of planetary exploration could well catalyst for new ideas. Through such ef­ has been very busy. be conducted by small robotic spacecraft carrying two or three instruments tightly focused on a few scientific ques­ forts and those of many others around the Page 20-A Planetary Readers' Service tions, The targets for these new microspacecraft will be world, we are embarking on a new pro­ -We introduce a new benefit for Plane­ Earth 's neighbors in the solar system: the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids and comets that pass close to our planet. In the gram in planetary exploration. NASA is tary Society members. background here is the crater Copernicus, one of the more now institutionalizing the concept of small Page 21-Questions & Answers-Can spectacular features on the mostly inert lunar surface, In the center is the north polar cap of Mars, a repository of water spacecraft with phrases such as "faster, beamed energy be used to explore the on the now dry and windswept martian surface. To its left is cheaper and better. " planets? What would happen if Earth a false-color image of the asteroid Gaspra, Images: United States Geological Survey and JPL The US space agency is proposing in stopped turning? -Charlene M, Anderson NEWS BRIEFS As administrators of a membership organization, The Planetary Society's Directors and staff care about and are influenced by our members' opinions, suggestions and ideas about the Astronauts may someday explore future of the space program and of our Society. We encourage members to write us and create Mars without leaving their base a dialogue on topics such as a space station, a lunar outpost, the exploration of Mars and the camp using "telepresence," a search for extraterrestrial life. mix of science and engineering Send your letters to: Members' Dialogue, The Planetary Society, 65 N. Catalina A venue, Pasadena, CA 91106. that NASA is now developing at Ames Research Center. "When we begin to explonj Mars, it won't be easy for the astronauts to travel far from their base to Ann Zawistowski's letter in the May/June 1992 Planetary Report suggested donating back gain access to the whole planet," issues of the magazine to area high school science departments. Please do! I have some 200 said Geoffrey Briggs, scientific astronomy students a year taking our one-semester high school course. I cut out pictures and director of the new Center for captions and save them py subject until there are enough to organize into a custom poster for Mars Exploration at Ames. lamination. This helps keep the course up to date and fleshes out the minimal imagery in texts. "Telepresence will allow humans The magazine's color and resolution beat the library's microfiche. to project themselves, by way of In response to a different issue from Members' Dialogue-false coloration of images-has at a suitably equipped robot, into a times misled me and has certainly confused the students. Enhanced images need to be labeled remote environment without en­ as such. dangering themselves. It's a very -BART WORMINGTON, Omaha, Nebraska powerful research technique." While "virtual reality," anoth­ I am the first amateur to use the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Five years ago, I started er computer science innovation, sending in proposals. One project, on post-eclipse brightening on 10, was just completed, and allows a user to see,and interact another is being done as part of a professional's study of Mars. Yet another is now under con­ with a computerized video image, sideration. telepresence lets a researcher see Using the HST was just about the biggest thrill of my life.