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A Publication of THE PLANET: SOCIETV o o o. oB-e- o o

Board of Directors FROIVI THE CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY President Vice President EDITOR Director. Laboratory for Planetary Professor of Planetary Studies, Cornell University Science, California Institute of Technology LOUIS FRIEDMAN Executive Director HENRY TANNER California Institute THOMAS O. PAINE of Technology Former Administrator. NASA As this issue reaches your hands, we are still Page 14-ThePhobos Argosy: A Brave Chairman. National JOSEPH RYAN Commission on Space O'Melveny & Myers celebrating the launch of the Magellan and Bitter Tale--The failure of Phobos 2 is spacecraft to Venus. This is the fIrst plane­ a setback to the worldwide community of Board of Advisors tary mission launched by the United States planetary science, but the spacecraft did DIANE ACKERMAN JOHN M. LOGSDON poet and author Director. Space Policy Institute in over a decade-since Pioneer Venus be­ manage to send back valuable data, includ­ George Washington University ISAAC ASIMOV gan its work in 1978-and this coming ing images of the larger moon of Mars. author HANS MARK Chancellor. decade holds promise for would-be plane­ Page 16-Approaching Neptune: Voy­ RICHARD BERENDZEN University of Texas System President. American University tary explorers. GaWeo is scheduled for ager 2 Prepares for an August JAMES MICHENER JACOUES BLAMONT author launch in October of this year; the Soviets Encounter-After 12 years in space, Voy­ Scientific Consultant, Centre National dEtudes Spatia/es. MARVIN MINSKY plan further Mars missions in 1994 and ager 2 is closing in on its last planetary tar­ France Donner Professor of Science. Massachusetts Institute 1996 or 1998; the US may launch the Comet get. The spacecraft will soon investigate the RAY BRADBURY of Technology poet and author PHILIP MORRISON Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission in eighth planet, its satellites and the rings that ARTHUR C. CLARKE Institute Professor. Massachusetts 1995, with the Cassini mission to the satur­ possibly encircle it. Voyager 2 then joins its author Institute of Technology CORNELIS DE JAGER PAUL NEWMAN nian system following in 1996. sister ship, Voyager 1, in searching for the Professor of Space Research. actor The Astronomiea/lnstitute at Magellan is the first planetary mission to edge of our solar system. Utrecht. The Netherlands BERNARD M. OLIVER Chief, SET! Program, be launched from a space shuttle (Galileo Page IS-A Pioneer of Planetary FRANK DRAKE NASA/Ames Research Center Professor of Astronomy and was to be the fIrst, as you'll read in this is­ Science--Planetary science is an ancient Astrophysics. Universlfy of SALLY RIDE California at Santa Cruz former astronaut sue), and it will reach its target after a 15- fIeld of study, but in its modern form, it is LEE A. DUBRIDGE ROALD Z. SAGDEEV month journey. With a direct trajectory, the the creation of a few imaginative pioneers. former presidential Institute (or Space Research, science advisor spacecraft could have reached Venus in only For his many discoveries and technological ~T~~e~ss~ Sciences JOHN GARDNER fIve months, but shuttle problems have developments, Gerard P. Kuiper is recog­ founder. Common Cause HARRISON H. SCHMITT former US Senator. NM pushed the mission back to a later launch nized as one of the founders. THEODORE M. HESBURGH and former astronaut President Emeritus, and to the longer flight path. (The April Page 22--Who Cares About Planetary University of Notre Dame LEWIS THOMAS Chancellor, Memorial Sloan 1989 issue of Discover carries a nice article Exploration?-The state of planetary ex­ SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER Kettering Cancer Center educator and jurist about this mission.) ploration is not the foremost problem in the JAMES VAN ALLEN GARRY E. HUNT Professor of Physics, Magellan'S launch is not the only news in public's mind, but there is striking public space scientist, United Kingdom University of Iowa planetary exploration. In this issue we also support for civilian space exploration. Those cover: who care can have a powerful impact on The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published six times yearly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Page 3-Members' Dialogue--After near­ space policy. Pasadena, CA 91106, (818) 793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues are $20 in the US, $25 in Canada, and ly two decades of building increasingly ca­ Page 25-World Watch-The loss of both $30 outside the US or Canada pable planetary vehicles, the USSR must Phobos spacecraft is causing repercussions Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON; Technical Editor. JAMES D. BURKE; deal with the loss of both Phobos craft. The in the Soviet space program. Planetary ex­ Assistant Editor. DONNA STEVENS; reliability of this new design is being ques­ ploration is being re-evaluated, and the Mir Copy Editor. KARL STULL; Art Director. BARBARA SMITH tioned by scientists who had hoped to use it space station has been left vacant. Mean­

Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and in collaborative exploration of Mars. while, in the US, the new administration ~~ ~g~i~~~s~s~a1~8ge~~e~h~tWa~~~~~ ~o~:;lanetary Society, its officers Page 4-The Solar System in Chaos-­ prepares its own space policy. In Canada, Second Class Mail Registration Number 9567 The new mathematical fIeld of chaos has Page 26-News & Reviews--Our reviewer found applications in the planetary sciences. Clark Chapman looks at Supernova 1987 A Orbits as well as atmospheres sometimes and NASA's planetary program. COVER: Jupiter, with its Great Red Spot (lower behave in unpredictable ways, and this new Page 27-Society Notes-The Society con­ left), and its retinue of Galilean satellites-lo science can help to explain them. tributes to spacecraft design, supports ama­ (center), Europa (far right), Ganymede (not pictured) and Callisto (bottom leftj-were last Page S-A Triumphant Beginning-The teur observations of Mars and preparations visited by spacecraft from Earth in 1979, when GaWeo project to investigate Jupiter and its for Voyager 2's August encounter. Voyagers 1 and 2 flew through the system. four large moons was conceived as an ambi­ Page 28--Q & A-Maser-powered probes They were to be shortly fol/owed by Galileo, an ambitious orbiter and atmospheric probe tious and daring new step in solar system and gravity-assist are explained, and the mission once scheduled for launch in late exploration. Its path to launch, now sched­ boundary of "deep space" inspires a mini­ 1981 or early 1982 from the space shuttle. uled for October, is the longest and most debate. Problems with the shuttle have repeatedly delayed Galileo' s launch, and it is now sched­ tortuous in the short history of planetary ex­ We hope you enjoy this issue of endings uledto be on its way in October of this year, ploration. and beginnings-Charlene M. Anderson to arrive at Jupiter in 1996. Image: JPUNASA N E W S BR I EFS

If left unchecked, orbital debris, or "space junk," could threaten the safe The Soviet Phobos mission, following the success of the Venera and Vega missions, and reliable operation of robotic and was conceived as a major new step involving 13 countries, with US help in tracking piloted spacecraft in the next century, and, for the first time, formal participation of 10 US scientists (including myself). according to a six-month US govern­ Even while the Phobos spacecraft were being readied for launch, still more ambi­ ment study. Co-chaired by NASA tious US-USSR collaboration on a Mars '94 mission to explore the surface was being and the Department of Defense, the defined. Then disaster struck. Both Phobos spacecraft failed. Phobos 2 did record study cited the breakup of satellites valuable data [see pages 14-15], but the failure of both spacecraft is a blow to US­ and rocket bodies as the main source USSR space cooperation, suggesting unreliability of the Soviet hardware. of the problem. We must ask, "Can US-USSR space cooperation continue to grow in spite of this -from the Langley Research setback?" My answer is yes, but only if the groups that develop Soviet spacecraft be­ Center's Researcher News gin to share decision making with international scientific users of the craft. Before looking into the future, let's look backward to gain a perspective on the plan­ Senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay etary program. The Vega and Venera missions were the last in a long series of flights Rockefeller of West Virginia have that used a basic spacecraft design introduced almost two decades ago. Early versions urged the National Science Founda­ did suffer some failures, but as the spacecraft were sent repeatedly to explore Venus tion to quickly make plans to replace through the 1970s, greater and greater successes were achieved, laying the engineering the 300-foot antenna that collapsed foundation for the daring triumphs of the 1980s. at Green Bank last November (see However, the spacecraft developed for the Phobos mission belong to a new genera­ News Briefs in the January/ February tion of space vehicles. "Teething" problems were to be expected. But Soviet industry 1989 Planetary Report). seems to have taken a step backwards-they excluded the scientists from the system "This type of telescope is impor­ design. Furthermore, delays in project approval left no time for adequate system analy­ tant to scientific research," said the sis and testing. senators. "We think the telescope Soviet missions are organized very differently from NASA's. NASA Headquarters should be replaced as quickly as pos­ establishes science working groups to help defme mission objectives with the engi­ sible with state-of-the-art equipment neers at NASA centers and in industry. All interested parties playa role in the design. and we want to see it replaced at The Soviet system is different: Major engineering groups and industry are indepen­ Green Bank." dently funded and managed separately from the Soviet Academy. There is no single Radio astronomers also fear that boss accountable for the entire enterprise in the way that a NASA project manager has without a "world-class" radio tele­ to answer both for the engineering requirements and the scientific designs. Instead, the scope at Green Bank, there may be engineering groups independently conceive and defme the nature of spacecraft, and attempts to chip away at the national only later do they negotiate with the scientific groups regarding its use. Too much radio-quiet zone that surrounds the power is given to the industrial contractor, who is not accountable to any authority. observatory. Once that isolation is The Phobos mission was planned and developed in the pre-glasnost environment. But broken into, the US could lose a its failures occurred in the new era of openness and of blossoming international coop­ major national resource that might eration. Can the Soviet space program change to meet the new realities? never again be available. The failure of the Phobos spacecraft clearly indicates that there are serious system -from Ronald A. Schorn in design flaws. It lacks adequate on-board intelligence to recover from problems. These Sky and Telescope must be overcome before new missions are flown. In response to the demise of Phobos 2, a commission was appointed under the juris­ In Oracle, Arizona, marine biologist diction of the engineering groups-with only minor representation from the Academy Abigail Alling recently ended five of Sciences. To their credit, on April 15 the commission publicly highlighted on-board days of isolation in a 23-square-foot, computer problems that may have contributed to the second failure and outlined plans greenhouse-like enclosure that cut to improve the computer. This was a new and welcome sign of glasnost. However, her off from the rest of Earth's envi­ there was no indication that the fundamentally inadequate design of the spacecraft-its ronment. inability to recover from minor faults-has been recognized. Furthermore, the engi­ In the Biosphere experiments, ac­ neering group's public report suggested that a natural cause, such as a meteorite im­ cording to Margaret Augustine, the pact, rather than a design problem, could have been the culprit. Independent analyses project director, plants and organisms by the Space Research Institute and by an informal group at Caltech have shown that purify the air and water and replen­ this was extremely unlikely. Invoking a deus ex machina was not constructive. ish oxygen. Food is grown, harvested All of us-Americans, Soviets and Europeans-have suffered disappointments be­ and prepared inside the biosphere fore in exploring space. It goes with the territory. But to build a broader collaboration, and wastes are biologically treated new openness in Soviet technical deliberations must now replace the cloistered and se­ and recycled as fertilizer. cret engineering world. Four men and four women are I believe that with the growing ties of space scientists and engineers on Earth, these scheduled to enter a two-and-one­ space projects will recover and even benefit from this failure. Eventually these cooper­ half acre biosphere in 1990 for two ative endeavors can pave the way for humankind's first footfall on Mars. years to see if human beings can BRUCE C. MURRAY, The Planetary Society, Pasadena exist in a completely enclosed world, possibly as a precursor to space colo­ A companion piece to this statement, by Academician Roald Z. Sagdeev, Scientific Di­ nization. rector o/the Phobos mission, will appear in the next issue o/The Planetary Report. -from the Pasadena Star News 3 Hyperion, the small, i"egular­ Iy shaped moon that orbits Sst­ he clockwork solar system is ries a central assumption of science. it the slightest nudge, and the pendulum urn between Ia­ dead, or at least sprung. To their This predictability in the heavens served veers off onto completely unexpected petus and the T considerable surprise, astrono­ as a model for the predictability of all gyrations. Celestial chaos, though root­ giant Titan, . mers have discovered that not all the uni­ tumbles chaoti­ other natural phenomena. The idea of ed in gravitational influences, not con­ cally as it cir­ paths and spins of celestial bodies are versal "laws of nature" was invoked by tact forces, is much like that. cles the planet. predictable with infinite precision, Isaac Newton in the 17th century when Chaotic behavior in the solar system It's the first con­ even in principle-far from it. The he formulated his law of gravitation. means that the trajectories of objects firmed example of chaotic rota­ mathematical notion of chaos has invad­ To fmd in the late 20th century that that formed nearby each other can "di­ tion among the ed the formerly serene world of celestial unpredictability-chaos-plays a sig­ verge exponentially," as theoreticians known planets mechanics. nificant role in the orderly celestial are­ say. That is, very small differences in and moons. The icy object is Some examples: na is not only a surprising development initial conditions-seemingly insignifi­ roughly 400 by -Certain irregularly shaped moons but a revolutionary one in the history of cant changes in a planet's motion-pro­ 250 by 200 kilo­ may be tumbling wildly and unpredict­ science. Efforts to evaluate the implica­ jected ahead in time, lead to radically meters in size. ably; tions of chaos have brought forth con­ different positions and velocities. Cha­ Image: JPUNASA -The chaotic orbits of some asteroids ferences and books, including James otic trajectories are said to show "sensi­ may explain the influx of meteoroids to Gleick's best-selling Chaos: Making a tive dependence on initial conditions." the inner solar system, and thus the New Science. presence of meteorites on Earth; The relatively young field of chaos Bringing Chaos Out of Order -The orbit of Pluto appears subject to suggests that very small changes in a Although mathematical physicist J. H. erratic changes in its inclination (the tilt mechanical system can lead to grossly Poincare hinted at chaotic behavior in of its orbit relative to the ecliptic, the irregular behavior. In the calculation of celestial bodies as far back as the tum plane defmed by Earth's orbit about the a moon's spin as it orbits around a plan­ of the century, it was not possible to Sun) and in its eccentricity (the devia­ et, for example, a tiny gravitational in­ study these problems until the advent of tion of its orbit from a circle). fluence may make long-range outcomes digital computers of enormous power. We may no longer be able to take in its orientation impossible to predict. The findings of chaos researchers have even the overall stability of the solar Another example of chaos, and more already touched fields from meteorolo­ system for granted. readily observed, is the erratic motion of gy and fluid mechanics to chemistry The extreme regularity of the motions a kinetic art pendulum, the kind found and the population dynamics of ecosys~ 4 of celestial bodies has been for centu- typically in glittery gift boutiques. Give tems. As a result of studying chaotic be- --"--_._. __._------

havior, atmospheric physicists now real­ Caltech, discov­ ize that detailed forecasting of weather ered that aster­ patterns on Earth and other planets is oids and their literally impossible for more than a few fragments with­ weeks ahead. Chaos makes certain ce­ in a particular lestial predictions chancy too. zone in the as­ Studies of celestial and other forms teroid belt be­ of chaos trace their contemporary origin tween Mars and to the work of mathematician-turned­ Jupiter could be meteorologist Edward Lorenz of MIT. nudged by the In 1961, while conducting a long-range planets' gravity projection of weather, Lorenz repeated a into highly ec­ computer simulation of atmospheric cir­ centric orbits. culation, beginning with numbers that These unexpect­ were only slightly different from those ed orbits, cross­ in the fIrst simulation. He was amazed ing the paths of •Earth Kirkwood Gaps To Jupiter- to find disproportionate and dramatic Mars and al- DISTANCE FROM SUN variations between the outcomes of his most certainly two computer runs. This discovery of Earth, would fI­ The main belt of asteroids circling the Sun between the or­ chaos at work in fluid mechanics nally explain bits of Mars and Jupiter exhibits several empty regions. This plot of 6,000 asteroids shows a cross-section of the sparked further investigations of chaos the origin of belt, with the Kirkwood Gaps clearly visible. The new math­ in other scientific fields. [See box, on meteorite im­ ematics of chaos may help explain how gravitational inter­ Jupiter's Great Red Spot.] pacts on those actions among the asteroids and Jupiter created these The discovery of celestial chaos, ac­ planets. gaps. Chart: Marie Sykes, Steward Observatory cording to Jack Wisdom of MIT, a pio­ For an aster­ neer in the fIeld, was delayed because oid to be thus the idea of a mathematically pre­ removed, its initial orbit would have to at last be explained. Wisdom found that dictable, clockwork solar system had have a period that was close, for exam­ a resonant asteroid's orbit may remain been firmly entrenched for centuries. ple, to a 3:1 resonance with Jupiter's relatively stable for hundreds of thou­ Since the time of Isaac Newton, as­ 11.9-year orbital period-the asteroid sands of years; then its eccentricity may tronomers had believed that if initial making three revolutions around the abruptly shoot up to more than three conditions were known with sufficient Sun to everyone by Jupiter. Other times its normal 10 percent variation. precision, then the future or past courses "commensurable" resonances, such as of celestial bodies could be calculated 5:2,7:3 and 2:1, produce similar effects. Hyperion Tumbling to any desired accuracy. Thus, "the pos­ If such resonant orbits have indeed During Voyager 2's 1981 encounter sibility that motion in the solar system sent asteroids beyond their accustomed with Saturn, images of the moon Hyper­ was irregular really wasn't considered." paths, then the mysterious voids in the ion showed that it was not spherical, the In the early 1980s, Wisdom, then at asteroid belt called Kirkwood Gaps may moon's shortest axis of about 200 kilo-

Chaotic effects may divert asteroids from their usual orbits ,. tween Mars and Jupiter to paths that intersect Earth's orbit. When an asteroid strikes Earth, the re­ suns can be catas­ trophic: The dinosaurs may have been helped to extinction by a col­ liding asteroid. In a less deadly case, the Impact may form a distinctive crater, such as Meteor Crater in northern Arizona (left). This scar Is roughly 1.2 kilometers across and 200 meters deep. Photogl1lph: Meteor CI'BfM Enterprises, Inc.

5 -I meters being only about half its longest Paris in 1986, Wisdom said, "For the ital Orrery." (The original orrery, made measurement. Jack Wisdom, Stanton most part, the world of our everyday for the Earl of Orrery, was a wind-up Peale and Francois Mignard later pre­ lives is classical [Newtonian], but clas­ model using balls to show the relative dicted that Hyperion would be found to sical mechanics is not at all simple. sizes, positions and motions of plane­ be tumbling chaotically, based on a Newton could not have dreamt of the tary bodies.) With this digital computer, computer analysis of the interaction of beauty and complexity of the mechanics Gerald J. Sussman of MIT and Jack its spin, orbital period and tides within he brought forth. The final state of Hy­ Wisdom determined that Pluto's orbit its solid (yet elastic) body. By contrast, perion is completely unpredictable." can exhibit chaotic motion over a re­ most other satellites in our solar system Another of Wisdom's explorations by markably short time scale- a mere 20 have evolved to rotate in some kind of computer, done with graduate student million years, barely a flash in our solar synchronization with their orbit about a William C. Tittemore, concerns possible system's 4.6-billion-year history. This planet. One face of the Moon, for exam­ chaotic conditions in the orbits of may be the first indication that the over­ ple, perpetually presents itself to Earth. Uranus' moons. Their conclusion is that all motion of the planets has manifested The researchers predicted that Hyper­ the uraman satellites have spent long in­ anything other than perfect stability for ion's spin would oscillate chaotically tervals in chaotic orbits. billions of years. between a state of zero and two rota­ What about the overall stability of the Sussman and Wisdom have com­ tions per orbit of Saturn. Recently MIT solar system? This is a problem that for bined advanced computer design with graduate student James Klavetter made centuries has resisted analytical attacks sophisticated programs to produce a nu­ measurements at the Cerro Tololo Ob­ by great mathematicians and physicists. merical simulation of Pluto's orbit over servatory in Chile of variations in the Wisdom, MIT colleagues, and research­ an unprecedented 845 million years, light from Hyperion, in an effort to con­ ers at Caltech and Columbia University surpassing a longstanding million-year fum the small moon's chaotic spin, and have in recent years devoted their ener­ calculation of outer-planet motion done the results do seem to prove the point. gies to this question. by C. 1. Cohen, E. C. Hubbard and C. Wisdom notes that "Hyperion's chaotic Oesterwinter in 1973, as well as their tumbling makes it the first confumed ex­ The Digital Orrery own 200-million-year projection per­ ample of chaotic rotation among the per­ Now chaos in the solar system can be formed in 1986. manent members of the solar system." examined on the largest scale with a Their Digital Orrery is dedicated ex­ In his Urey Prize lecture, delivered in new tool of computer science, the "Dig- clusively to the complex task of simu­ lating the motion of the outer planets under their mutual gravitational influ­ ences. It is a marvel of electronic design and is only about a cubic foot in vol­ ume. Yet it manipulates numbers at one-third the rate of a Cray supercom­ puter applied to the same problem. Recalling the beautiful brass clockwork orreries of past centuries, Sussman says with a grin, "We used modern technolo­ gy to make an ugly one." The Digital Orrery computed the po­ sitions and velocities of the outer plan­ ets for times 32.7 days apart, an interval chosen to minimize the build-up of er­ rors in the simulation. The computer simulates at the rate of seven million years per day and is extremely accurate. After 845 million years, for example, the error in Jupiter's orbital position­ A classical orrery (top) is a as measured by an imaginary observer clockwork model that shows the relative sizes, positions at the Sun looking outward at the 360 and motions of planets and degree panorama of planets-is said to moons. Aaron Willard, Jr. of be a mere five degrees. Boston built this elegant one around 1828. Photograph: Nal/onal Museum of Pluto: Chaos Comes AmerIcan HIstory to the Planets . A more modern version is Astronomers already knew, of course, the Digital Orrery (right), a that diminutive Pluto was something of powerful computer that has a maverick: a small, inner-solar-system­ numerically simulated Plu­ to's chaotic orbit for a pro­ sized world misplaced among the giant jected 845 million years. outer planets, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn Jack Wisdom (left) and Ger­ and Jupiter. The last planet to be discov­ ald J. Sussman (right) ap­ pear with their dedicated cal­ ered (by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930), culator of planetary motion. Pluto is a virtual double planet-a tiny Photograph: Donna Coveney far world with a large moon, Charon. And MITPhata 6 ~------

Chaos and Jupiter's Great Red Spot though Pluto is nominally the outennost planet in our solar system, its eccentric Jupiter's Great Red Spot has delighted and mystified observers since orbit periodically brings it closer to the Galileo first turned his telescope on it over 350 years ago. As seen in Sun than neighboring Neptune. sequential Voyager images, the spot rolls like a ball between currents What is Pluto doing in its unusual to its north and south that and apparently chaotic orbit? Wisdom, move in opposite direc­ for one, doesn't accept the theory that tions. Yet the enonnous Pluto was originally a moon of Nep­ rust-colored atmospheric tune. Rather, he believes that Pluto may eddy has endured for have formed in place and survived centuries and appears to from the early history of our solar sys­ be yet another instance of tem, when the planet's orbital charac­ dynamical chaos, in this teristics were probably different. He case involving fluid turbu­ says that Pluto's orbit is reminiscent of lence on a giant scale. the resonant asteroid orbits that typical­ ly evolve to high eccentricity and or­ The puzzle has been bital inclination. how such a large "object" However it originated, Pluto now - it extends 25,000 kilo­ displays many different and complex meters in longitude­ resonances with Neptune's orbit, which could persist so long in Wisdom and Sussman say are often as­ the turbulent jovian atmo­ sociated with both enhanced stability sphere. This led inevitably and instability. Among other patterns, to suggestions that the the simulation revealed 3.8-million­ spot was a manifestation year and 34-million-year oscillations in of some underlying non­ the inclination of Pluto's orbit, as well as unifonnity deep within the surprisingly long 150- and 6OO-million­ planet. Smaller-scale year cycles. Pluto's closest approach to features in Jupiter's atmo­ the Sun, or perihelion, displays cycles sphere, by contrast, change of 3.7,27 and 137 million years. within a few days. The simulations do not take into ac­ Now, in the February 25, 1988, issue of Nature, two research count such effects as gravitational in­ groups have reported independent evidence that Jupiter's famed fluence from the occasional close ap­ marking, indeed, may be understandable as a chaotic phenomenon. proach to our solar system of a nearby Philip S. Marcus of the University of California at Berkeley star, or the "evaporation" of the Sun's numerically solved the complex equations of fluid motion for a mass through emission of electromag­ model of Jupiter's atmosphere. Marcus' calculations suggest that netic radiation and particles. The small "Large spots of vorticity [whirlpools] fonn spontaneously" under effects from inner planets, general rela­ certain conditions and remain stable, rolling like a pencil between tivity, errors in the assumed masses of your palms. In a computer-generated film, a single spot is seen to the planets, and uncertainties in initial fonn even after a variety of initial fluid conditions. conditions are also not included. But The other evidence is experimental. Joel Sommeria, Steven D. these effects are thought to be small Meyers and Harry L. Swinney at the University of Texas, conducting enough not to alter the general conclu­ tests with fluids spun in a laboratory apparatus, found that "over a sions. wide range of rotation and pumping rates the flow evolves until only The researchers believe that the ex­ one large vortex remains." The remaining vortex bears a remarkable act value of Pluto's still-uncertain mass similarity to the Great Red Spot. has negligible impact on their conclu­ Saturn's atmosphere also displays large, stable vortices, illustrat­ sions about its orbit. If this is so, they ing perhaps once again the omnipresence of chaotic phenomena of say, "Pluto's irregular motion will astronomical scope.-EM chaotically pump the motion of the oth­ er members of the solar system, and the chaotic behavior of Pluto would imply chaotic behavior of the rest of the solar system." The new era of chaos research cer­ tainly flies in the face of 18th century But with somewhat ominous import should thus not be taken for granted." notions of our solar system as im­ for our descendants in a presumably mutable celestial clockwork with mo­ solar-system-wide civilization, Wisdom Eugene F. Mallove, an astronautical tions predictable, at least in principle, and Sussman have written, "Planetary engineer, is Chief Science Writer at the indefinitely far into the future. Howev­ systems which appear stable may in MIT News Office. He is the author of er, these results should not be of much fact be slightly unstable. . . this slight The Quickening Universe: Cosmic concern for the near tenn-unless one instability can manifest itself in dra­ Evolution and Human Destiny and co­ counts the already well-known hazard matic and relatively sudden changes in author of The Starflight Handbook: A of Earth-crossing asteroidal debris. orbit. The stability of the solar system Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel. 7 Jupiter and its largest moon~ (from top left) 10, Europa, Ganymecleand Callisto-await the Galileo spacecraft.

Bruce Murray, Vice President of The Planetary Society, served as Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1976 to 1982. During his tenure he enjoyed the triumphs of the Viking landings on Mars and the Voyager encounters with Jupiter and Saturn, and shepherded JPL through the attempts to cancel NASA's plane- 1975. NASA decreed that the Jupiter or­ tary program in the the early 1980s. Dr. Murray chronicles his involvement in biter mission would be the first plane­ planetary exploration in a newly published book, Journey into Space: The First tary mission to use the shuttle, in late Three Decades ofSpace Exploration. 1981 or early 1982. We have adapted a chapter of that book, "A Triumphant Beginning," for read­ In August 1976, NASA Administra­ ers of The Planetary Report. This chapter is part of a longer section telling the tor James Fletcher submitted JOP as a story of the Galileo project to explore Jupiter and its Galilean moons. The space­ "new start" for the congressional budget craft was originally scheduled to launch from a space shuttle in late 1981 or ear­ cycle of spring 1977. JOP was then en­ ly 1982. It is now scheduled for launch in October of this year. What happened? dorsed by President Gerald Ford's Of­ Dr. Murray begins the story as he takes over as Director of JPL. -CMA fice of Management and Budget (OMB) in the months just before his Nixon-bur­ dened presidential campaign lost to smiling Jimmy Carter's in November 1976. Carter's OMB quickly reap­ proved JOP, however, and the proposed y first year as a university pro­ chance to start on a new mission to the project sailed through the House and fessor turned laboratory direc­ planets, now long overdue. That logical Senate authorizing committees in the Mtor was crammed with new step was an ambitious follow-up to the early spring of 1977. learning experiences. Pioneer and Voyager flybys, a Jupiter By April 1977 I was feeling pretty The Viking search for life on Mars in orbiter, just as the Mariner 9 orbiter good as I reflected on my first year as the summer of 1976 attracted the great­ brilliantly followed the earlier Mariner director of JPL. Popular support for est media coverage for a space endeavor flybys. But our proposal offered even planetary exploration had been high­ since the Apollo landings on the Moon. more. It combined a powerful orbiter lighted by the Viking mission to Mars, This fusing of Viking, the bicentennial with an atmospheric entry probe (like and bipartisan political support seemed celebration and a presidential election Venera 4 at Venus), which would be to flow from both the White House and year created an ideal environment for hurled directly into the swirling, colored Congress. JOP promised to be a high­ drumming up nationwide support for atmosphere of the Sun's largest planet yield mission for scientists and citizens bold new American projects of plane­ -thus its name, Jupiter Orbiter with alike. Perhaps approval of JOP would tary exploration. Probe (JOP). propel us toward more ambitious ad­ 8 Those purple times offered our best An ominous note was sounded in late ventures-a rendezvous with Halley's Comet, a radar portrait of Venus, or Space Telescope one year even a return to the surface of Mars. further back in NASA's queue of proposed new pro­ Ambushed in Congress jects-to 1977. JOP also But on Wednesday, May 4, 1977, the had to be approved in 1977, Jupiter Orbiter with Probe mission was in order for it to be launched suddenly ambushed in Congress. With­ during the especially favor­ out warning, all JOP funds were deleted able opportunity in Decem­ by the House appropriations subcom­ ber 1981 and January 1982. mittee that controlled NASA's funds. NASA couldn't focus on This subcommittee also oversaw other everything. In the spring of independent agencies like the National 1977 it worried about the Science Foundation, the Environmental fate of the Space Telescope, Protection Agency, the Veterans Admin­ not about JOP, because a istration, and the Department of Hous­ further challenge to the ing and Urban Development. Its chair­ Space Telescope loomed in man, the austere Edward P. Boland, the form of Senator William hailed from Massachusetts, as did his Proxmire. Long the scourge closest confidant, Tip O'Neill, Speaker of NASA, Proxmire now of the House. Boland also chaired the chaired the Senate subcom­ House Intelligence Committee. Therein mittee that voted on appro­ lay a problem, for Boland was repeated­ priations for NASA. His ly assured by intelligence officials that open skepticism created for the space shuttle was essential for na­ NASA the nightmare of a tional security. "I have no problem with Proxmire-Boland alliance to the space shuttle program," he said. kill the Space Telescope. "That was the direction in which the Nixon administration indicated we "Jupiter Will ought to go, and the Apollo program Be There .•." was the direction in which the Kennedy But Boland, faced with a de­ administration felt we ought to go." termined NASA and with Boland supported NASA's space shuttle strong National Academy of program, even while terming it NASA's Sciences support for the "sacred cow" and criticizing NASA's Space Telescope, shrewdly failure to allow for inflation in shuttle shifted at the last minute and cost estimating. struck at JOP. He knew full well that NASA's overall Saving the Space Telescope top priority was the shuttle The flip side of Boland's staunch, if and that the primary com­ acerbic, support for the shuttle was his mitment of NASA's Office insistence that NASA prioritize its other of Space Science was to the missions, especially its space-astronomy Space Telescope. Thus, in program, into which he lumped all plan­ chopping JOP, he could at etary exploration. In 1975 he had tem­ most expect opposition from porarily killed the Pioneer Venus mis­ the third and fourth layers at sion. But when the Senate restored those NASA headquarters. Of the funds, Boland backed off Pioneer Venus seven large NASA centers, in the ensuing House-Senate conference only two, JPL and the Ames committee. (The Pioneer Venus space­ Research Center, were in­ craft were launched on two Atlas-Cen­ volved. JOP was an easy taur rockets in 1978.) In 1976 Boland target. Boland announced: escalated his "prioritizing" campaign "But not every project and came down hard on his real target­ that the scientific communi­ the proposed Space Telescope (ST). He ty wants can have first prior­ correctly surmised that the Space Tele­ ity, and that is why we made scope, like the shuttle, would cost far the budget priority choice more than NASA had advertised. -to provide the Space Telescope-but This was no delicate political minuet But Boland had not reckoned with we denied the Jupiter Orbiter Probe. like the one in 1970 when the Mariner the avalanche of national support that "Jupiter will be there 5 or 10 or 15 mission to Venus and Mercury was developed for the Space Telescope. The years from now when this project can held hostage in Congress by another National Academy of Sciences had in be reinstated. In all the 20 years that this committee chairman, who forced fact given it its highest endorsement. Nation has been involved in a major ef­ NASA to kick in more money for his NASA itself had a strong interest in the fort-in all those years-the Congress favorite NASA program. No, this was Space Telescope, the principal scientific has never, never made an attempt to de­ a bare-knuckled power clash. At stake use of the shuttle in the 1980s. Boland's ny funding for a major space mission. I was a symbolic $20 million out of 1976 assault, however, pushed the think it's time that we did that." NASA's $4 billion total budget. Over- 9 Chairman Boland's "That's up to Speaker O'Neill and Home Field Chairman Boland. It could be just a JOP and JPL suddenly week." seemed overmatched in a "You mean we have to try to reach all political struggle we did 435 members of the House and per­ not expect or understand. suade them to openly reject Eddie Our only hope was to gain Boland's position in less than a week?" strong support from Sena­ "I'm afraid so." tor William Proxmire's Now we were playing on Eddie Senate appropriations Boland's home field, and it was not at subcommittee. "Imagine all level. In desperation, we tried every Proxmire as a white political circuit we could reach, along knight," I mused. Tues­ with pleas to the customary supporters day, June 15, 1977, was a of space science like the presidential dramatic day. The full science adviser Frank Press. House supported Boland and voted to delete JOP. Mid-July Mayday But Proxmire's subcom­ Governor Jerry Brown of California had mittee included JOP in its discovered JPL- and its captive press appropriations bill. It had corps-during the Viking mission in heard our plea for help. 1976. He also queried me frequently on Four weeks later, at another topic of mutual interest, solar 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Ju­ energy. Now he responded vigorously ly 12, Chairman Boland to my mid-July Mayday by making per­ and his chosen House sonal phone calls to most ofthe Califor­ members sat down across nia congressional delegation. His politi­ the conference table to cal support supplemented our scattered face Senator Proxmire contacts in southern California and and his Senate colleagues. those that the Ames Research Center Their task was to resolve (on the south side of San Francisco lOP and 38 other individ­ Bay) could discover in the north. ual differences in the ap­ Many scientists who belong to the propriations bill between Division for Planetary Sciences of the the House and the Senate. American Astronomical Society cor­ Time passed slowly in rectly perceived Boland's JOP actions Pasadena as we waited for as a threat to planetary science. A tele­ word to leak out from be­ phone and letter network spontaneously hind those closed doors sprang to life, building its own momen­ under the Capitol rotunda. tum and reaching some congressmen We had asked our Senate from home-district constituents. Carl allies to press for a com­ Sagan, James Van Allen and other promise on the first-year prominent scientists spent days making funding- say, $10 million personal visits to members of Congress. instead of $20 million for Through good fortune, 5,000 JOP- anything, in fact, as "Trekkies" arrived in Philadelphia for long as the mission was their yearly "Star Trek" convention just . authorized. three days after the conference commit­ It was late, even on the tee's bombshell. Gene Roddenberry, the west coast, when we fi­ originator of the seemingly immortal nally learned the result. TV series "Star Trek," was to be their The conference commit­ principal speaker. Roddenberry sounded tee had resolved all but 2 the clarion call, practically exhorting his of the 39 differences. An followers to show their commitment to emotion-laden amend- space exploration by bombarding their ment to the House bill con­ congressmen directly with telegrams all, Boland's subcommittee controlled cerning veterans' payments, which had and phone calls on behalf of JOP. $70 billion. Boland did not want a com­ been added from the floor, could not be Howard Simons of the Washington promise. He wanted complete victory resolved by the conference committee Post had covered Mariner 4's dramatic - the demise of JOP and the demon­ - nor could the committee reach an first look at Mars way back in 1965. stration of his committee's ability to agreement on JOP. Now he was managing editor and sym­ shape "budget priorities." "What happens next?" I asked JPL's pathetic to our predicament. On Mon­ Most of NASA, JPL quickly discov­ congressional liaison in Washington day, July 18, the Post led off its editorial ered, cared more about maintaining over the telephone. page with "On to Jupiter," an incisive Boland's support for the shuttle and the "It goes back to the full House for a analysis of the political realities: Space Telescope than about risking an special vote." "What is involved here is the ability 10 open confrontation with him over JOP. "When?" of a subcommittee chairman, who -,------

thif!ks this country is spending too To drive the point home to its reader­ demonstrated the breadth and depth of much money on space programs, to ve­ ship, which included every staffer on American political support for planetary to a worthwhile, already-approved pro­ the Hill and most members of Congress, exploration. The drought in new efforts ject simply because it is vulnerable. the Post also ran a news article by its to explore the planets must finally be Jupiter Orbiter is a low-cost item, as science reporter Tom O'Toole, a long­ coming to an end. Surely nothing could space missions and most other govern­ time admirer of JPL and space explo­ stop us now from returning to Jupiter. ment projects go. Its start-up costs, ration. He detailed how the political After receiving congressional sup­ which are the ones in difficulty, are goals of Boland were about to destroy a port, JOP was renamed Galileo on $20.8 million. Its established total cost valuable and vulnerable American en­ January 17, 1978. (This renaming, is $280 million. Because it is small and deavor. incidentally, helped remove political because it lacks the drama of manned associations lingering from our bruis­ space missions, it has little political sup­ High Noon in the House ing congressional battle.) Galileo was port. The big items in the $4 billion On Tuesday, July 19, 1977, the full then officially scheduled for launch in space budget, like the space shuttle, House of Representatives took up the January 1982, on the thirtieth planned generate many jobs and much backing conference committee report. Boland shuttle flight. from members of Congress. Rep. quickly disposed of everything else and Boland, who can't curtail the big pro­ staked out his position on JOP. Member "18 Months of Pad" jects because of that support, picked this after member rose either to voice sup­ In boarding a late flight from Los Ange­ one to slice out of next year's budget as port for Boland and the deletion of JOP les to Washington, I had bumped into a demonstration that the space crowd or to differ with him and urge support John Yardley, NASA's top man for the can't get everything it wants." for JOP. Boland skillfully answered shuttle. Along with NASA's Deputy The editorial concluded with a crucial every objection and rejected all com­ Administrator, Alan Lovelace, he was endorsement: promise. returning from a round of meetings with "This nation ought to use its space Finally the Speaker pro tern an­ Rockwell International, the Los Angeles­ capability to gain more basic knowledge nounced that time for discussions had based prime contractor for the whole of the universe as well as to engage in expired. A voice vote indicated a space shuttle effort. practical- and exciting- applications stronger "nay" than "aye" vote on the "How sure are you about the shuttle of Earth-orbiting satellites. Congress ac­ JOP deletion. Boland then called for a schedule, John?" I asked, polite but anx­ cepted that view of our world some quorum. Absent House members rushed ious. "Galileo has got to be launched in years ago, or so we had thought. If it to the floor, and the electronic voting the Jupiter window of January 1982." now upholds one subcommittee's veto machine tallied up the results. Boland Yardley jotted down a few key dates of this project, it will be turning its back lost. JOP won by a vote of 280 to l31. and smiled back at me tolerantly. on its own commitment to a space pro­ Nothing like this had ever happened "Hell, Bruce," he said, "we have 18 gram that makes scientific sense." before, nor has it since. To me, this months of pad." -----.

11 and otherwise, had been tied completely users like Comsat and Satellite Business to human-piloted shuttle launches. Systems, had to be content with guaran­ This fateful course had begun in Jan­ teed and affordable NASA prices for fu­ uary 1972, when NASA Administrator ture transportation into space by the James Fletcher finally sold the shuttle to shuttle. President Richard Nixon as America's Many fretted in private, but rarely in key to the future in space. public, about NASA's ability to deliver On May 23, 1977, the newly elected that service reliably and on schedule. President Jimmy Carter appointed Into this commercial void stepped Robert Frosch to replace James Fletcher Europe. France and the European Space as NASA Administrator. But John Yard­ Agency shrewdly developed the Ariane ley continued as NASA's shuttle chief, expendable-rocket system, specifically more powerful than ever under the new tailored for efficient commercial use, and less experienced NASA manage­ employing much of the conventional ment. Indeed, Yardley continued to lead rocket technology that the United States the shuttle program all the way into was abandoning. President Reagan's administration. Back in the early 1970s, Fletcher, The Shuttle in USAF Slue Yardley and Deputy Administrator NASA still had to deal with the Defense George Low knew that the old hands of Department, which had its own launch­ automated spacecraft, whether in sci­ ing capability and requirements. The ence, commercial communications or DoD was (and is) the largest single user defense, would never voluntarily relin­ of American launch vehicles. How quish Atlas-Centaur and other un­ could the generals and the civilian de­ manned launch vehicles. These proven fense officials be persuaded to abandon rockets were too reliable. NASA's their existing fleet of Titans, Deltas and claims that a manned shuttle could pro­ Atlas-Centaurs? What would bring vide lower-cost and more-efficient them to the shuttle as the American launches for unmanned payloads were launching vehicle? How could they be viewed very skeptically by those inter­ enticed to let national-security payloads ested primarily in space achievements become wholly dependent on the shut­ with automated spacecraft. So how tle? That sales task required even more could NASA create for the shuttle a massive NASA subsidies. All the bil­ monopoly on US access to space? lions of dollars to develop the shuttle would come from NASA. And NASA's Pricing for a Shuttle Monopoly rates to the DoD for future launches, Yardley's Office of Space Transporta­ like those for commercial communica­ tion controlled NASA's launch vehicle tions satellites, were set far lower than systems. The Office of Space Science in the probable costs to NASA for provid­ Galileo was to be the first planetary probe launched from the space NASA headquarters controlled funds ing those services. The Air Force mere­ ·shuttle, sometime in late 1981 or for all missions of space science and ly had to promise to build a decade later early 1982. Delays in the shuttle planetary exploration. Since it reported the west coast base for the shuttle and program, and then the Challenger tragedy, have kept it on the ground to NASA's boss, Fletcher, it was easy, use it. for nearly a decade. Galileo is now beginning in the mid-1970s, for Fletch­ Starting in 1977 and continuing scheduled for launch in October er simply to require that all new NASA through 1980, as scheduling problems 1989. Photograph: NASA missions of this sort be designed for worsened, the shuttle found its greatest launch by shuttle. friend in the Pentagon. This was Dr. Private companies developing com­ Hans Mark, the key Defense Depart­ munications satellites were, however, ment official for space and for the shut­ It was April 1978, and the shuttle's not under NASA control. They could tle. Mark became deputy secretary of first fight was only 18 months away by not be forced to choose the shuttle. So the Air Force in 1977, with special Yardley's schedule. Here was a perfect Fletcher and Yardley offered to com­ space responsibilities, and the secretary opportunity to air my growing unease mercial satellite builders and users a in 1979. Mark, a shuttle and space sta­ over the shuttle's progress with NASA's government subsidy in the form of tion messiah, had earlier directed shuttle boss. I could quietly remind guaranteed low prices for future shuttle NASA's Ames Research Center. Yardley of the devastating threat that launches. These prices were set low I had known Mark for many years, any shuttle delay posed to America's enough to discourage the birth and even before serving as a fellow NASA only new planetary probe. The trusty growth of an American private-sector center director with him in 1976 and Atlas-Centaurs, and their successors the industry for launching satellites with 1977. When visiting him in 1977 in his Titan-Centaurs, had propelled America conventional unmanned rockets. In­ Pentagon office, I could not ignore the to world leadership in robotic explo­ deed, they were far lower than the likely detailed model of the shuttle that domi­ ration of the planets. Now they were cost to NASA for launching those com­ nated his desk. The only difference be­ museum pieces. NASA had decreed that mercial satellites on the shuttle. Thus, tween this model and those in the all new planetary missions be launched big commercial communications satel­ NASA offices was that Mark's was with the shuttle and the new upper lite companies like Hughes, Ford Aero­ painted Air Force regulation hlue. It 12 stages. America's future in space, robotic space and RCA, as well as satellite was no secret that he advocated an Air- Force-controlled shuttle system. He lat­ would necessarily have kept expend­ Aldridge gained presidential permis­ er recounted with pride how he inter­ able launch vehicles. sion to ignore the decade-old "shuttle­ vened with President Carter to save Events have demonstrated that this only" national launch policy. He began NASA's shuttle program from the rav­ option would have been an inspired so­ to rebuild an independent launch agings of its detractors. In his memoirs, lution to the shuttle problem. Develop­ capability for the Air Force. As a con­ he describes how on November 14, ment of a mixed fleet- and acknowl­ sequence of his foresight, industrial 1979, he represented the DoD and edgement that the shuttle was properly contractors were busy at work on an USAF at a critical shuttle meeting in an R&D program-would have pre­ improved Titan-class launcher for the the Cabinet Room of the White House. vented the launch vehicle disaster that Air Force on January 28, 1986, when Carter, faced with strong and continu­ finally grounded America's efforts. Yet, the Challenger accident blasted into ing support for the shuttle by Defense according to Mark, Harold Brown, sup­ oblivion the shuttle-only launch policy Secretary Harold Brown, as well as by ported by Stansfield Turner, director of of the United States. Mark, agreed to continue without the CIA, deemed the OMB proposal On March 5, 1979, Voyager J bril­ change the delay-plagued shuttle devel­ unacceptable from the viewpoint of na­ liantly revealed to a "planet-struck" opment. Carter's science advisor, Frank tional security. Presumably, Brown and world the wondrous details of giant Press, was also present and approved, Turner were trying to protect the shut­ Jupiter and its extraordinary moons. although he opposed additional new tle's promised capability to launch ex­ On July 5, 1979, Voyager 2 repeated ventures like the space station. tra-large reconnaissance payloads from the spectacle and added intriguing new Vandenberg Air Force Base at Lompoc, details. A Mixed Fleet California. (Brown did, however, insist On July 20, 1979, just 15 months af­ However, Mark's memoirs indicate that on the procurement of long-lead-time ter Yardley's patronizing response, a much more significant shuttle meet­ parts for continuation of the Titan 3 as "Hell, Bruce, we have 18 months of ing had taken place two years earlier, backup. He thus provided launch vehi­ pad," we at JPL learned by telephone on December 16, 1977, in the office of cle insurance for the DoD for some from our friends at NASA in Washing­ the OMB's director, James McIntyre. years in the future.) ton that the shuttle would not be ready McIntyre and the OMB were pushing Mark's successor in the Reagan to launch our Jupiter Orbiter with to downgrade the shuttle to an experi­ administration, Edward ("Pete" ) Probe during the critical January 1982 mental program, with only three or­ Aldridge, had a far less cluttered agen­ window. biters, operating exclusively from the da concerning national security. In Our victory over Eddie Boland seemed Kennedy launch site. Such an approach 1985, after a bitter battle with NASA, hollow now, gutted by NASA itself. Ll

Excerpted from Journey into Space: The First Th ree Decades of Space Exploration by Bruce Murray. Copyright © 1989 by Bruce Mu rray. Reprinted with pe nnission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company. Inc. THE PHOBOS ARGOSy.-A

ore than three years ago, Soviet scientists revealed to the world their plans for another Mstep in humanity's exploration outward to Mars. As they had done for the Vega international mission that sent two spacecraft to Venus and Hal­ ley's comet in 1984-1986, members of the Space Research Institute, then headed by Society Advisor Roald Sagdeev, published their objectives and described the experiments and instruments for a bold new enterprise in deep space. This time the goal was to visit the martian moon Phobos. In addition to their primary objective, the two Phobos spacecraft were to make solar and interplanetary measurements during their trip to Mars, and once in orbit there they would make remote sensing measurements of the martian surface. In contrast to Vega, which used a derivative of the reliable Venera spacecraft (in service since 1975), the Phobos expedition would use a new-generation spacecraft having many exciting capabilities, includ­ ing hovering close to Phobos and dropping small landers on its surface. Early in 1988, exhibit models of this complicated and powerful six-ton craft were shown at international gatherings. On July 7 and 12, 1988, the two spacecraft of the Phobos mission were launched. After mid-course maneuvers, the mission settled into routine. But in early September the first spacecraft failed to respond to commands. Analysis showed that a subtle combi­ nation of system design faults and operator errors had caused a tum-off of attitude control, with the result that the craft slowly tumbled, losing solar power and environmental control. After fruitless recovery attempts the Phobos team directed all its efforts toward the surviving spacecraft. Among the careful pre-encounter tests of Phobos 2 were several that included NASA's Deep Space Network as part of a worldwide, cooperative radio-science experiment. In late January 1989, its large propulsion system placed the spacecraft successfully in an initial, eccentric orbit about Mars, and in subsequent weeks the craft was maneuvered down into a circular orbit close to the orbit of its namesake moon. With the main rocket system jettisoned, the craft began an intricate series of maneuvers using its small jets. The cameras took pictures of Phobos, enabling specialists to refme their calculations of the moon's orbit and the spacecraft's orbit, so that the next maneuvers could be finely trimmed for the approach. After one such session, on March 27, the craft failed to return to its proper orientation, and ~~~~~~----.~------

BRAVE AND SITTER TALE

ultimately its signals were lost. At this writing the Venus~more than 12 to Mars, more than 30 to cause is unknown. Venus. New equipment often failed, but through So ended a splendid interplanetary voyage, persistent effort, success came to the Soviets. Can literally within sight of its goal. It was a bitter the Soviet deep-space team be as persistent in this moment for all who yearn to discover the secrets of new, public, international environment? Only time Mars. But it is a brave emblem of the future, for will tell. Meanwhile the new-generation spacecraft the Soviets chose not to try to keep secrets on has come a long way toward proving itself. Earth. With the Vega and Phobos missions, the The successful Vega and the so nearly success­ Soviets have signaled that their approach to deep­ ful Phobos missions have created enormous space exploration is now open and international. goodwill in the world toward the USSR as a They are accepting not only the risks of technical country now willing to make large commitments failure but also the risks of adverse pUblicity. to the peaceful, scientific goal of exploring the Before the eyes of the world, the triumphs and the solar system~and willing to do so, win or lose, in failures of the Phobos mission were reported the full view of humanity. As this new resolve immediately. must by now be well known at all levels in their In earlier times such disasters were hidden, but government, we have good reason to hope that the truth eventually emerged. Ever since 1960 the they will continue to aim for Mars. USSR has attempted missions to Mars and ~James D. Burke, Technical Editor APPROACHING NEPTUNE

Voyager 2 is now preparing for its final encounter -with Neptune on August 25. When it completes its planetary mission, this doughty spacecraft will have visited four planets and over 30 satellites, braved the planets' magnetic fields, crossed the planes of four ring systems and, with its sister craft, Voyager 1, enlarged our knowledge of the outer solar system immeasurably. Since its launch in 1977, Voyager 2 has explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and the space between them. It's now traveling 18.9 kilometers per second - (42,380 miles per hour) toward its next target-the neptunian system. Voyager 2 will make its closest approach yet to a solar system body when it flies within 4,850 kilometers (3,000 miles) of Neptune's cloud tops. After swinging by the big blue planet,

1 Voyager 2 photographs Neptune from 14.7 million kilometers.

The computer portrays Neptune as it would be Seen at a distance of 354,000 kilometers-from its large moon, Triton.

3 Voyager 2 prepares to pass over the outermost ring arcs.

Computer graphics: Charles E. Kohlha8e and William J. Kosmann, JPUNASA

16 Voyager 2 Prepares for an August Encounter

the spacecraft will intercept Triton and attempt to rings or discontinuous sections called ring arcs. But penetrate the large moon's atmosphere with its out of 110 observed occultations, only 8 have shown cameras and other instruments. evidence of rings. Voyager 2 should help scientists The encounter with Triton could be one of the understand what is going on around Neptune. most exciting moments of the Voyager mission. Like In the years since the spacecraft's 1986 encoun­ Saturn's moon Titan, Triton possesses a substantial ter with Uranus, the project team has been busily atmosphere. With luck, this atmosphere may not be preparing for Neptune. Here is a sequence of com­ as hazy as Titan's, allowing Voyager 2's cameras to puter graphics depicting events as they will occur in see through to the surface. Oceans of nitrogen and August. methane may cover parts of Triton, which would Voyager 2 has already been observing the planet make this a most unusual world. for several months. Although it's still millions of ki­ Voyager 2 may answer the question of rings lometers away, the spacecraft's cameras have picked around Neptune. Some scientists observing from out more detail in Neptune's atmosphere than it ever Earth have noticed stars "blinking out" just before saw on the bland face of Uranus. Bright cloud fea­ or after Neptune passed in front of them. Such "oc- tures circle the planet, confirming scientists' hope . cultations" may indicate the presence of encircling that Neptune will be a fascinating place. - CMA

4 The computer takes the viewer within 585,000 kilometers of Neptune just after its closest approach to the planet.

After flying by the planet, Voyager 2 gets ready to encounter Triton, now 217,000 kilometers away.

Having completed its planetary mis­ sion, Voyager 2 says goodbye to Neptune, now 475,000 kilometers behind, and begins its journey out of the solar system. s a graduate student at Leiden University in 1929, Gerard Peter A Kuiper joined the Dutch solar APioneerof eclipse expedition to Sumatra, where he immersed himself in the beauty of the island, learned Malay, took notes on lo­ cal customs, painted beach scenes and still managed on the eve of the eclipse to correct an error of 90 degrees in the spectrograph slit of one of the cameras Planetary in time to ensure the expedition's suc­ cess. At 23, Kuiper displayed the ener­ gy, imagination, attention to technologi­ cal detail and fascination with objects in the solar system that would distinguish his career in planetary science. Science Born in Harenkarspel, The Nether­ lands, in 1905, Kuiper had been an un­ usual schoolboy, spending one whole winter mapping even the faintest stars in the Pleiades with a small telescope by Bettyann Kevles that his father had given him. After high school in Haarlem, where he was steeped in Cartesian mathematics and natural history, he studied optical as­ tronomy at Leiden University where he dern planetary science is a field of study that only completed his doctorate in 1933. In ret­ recently emerged from a period of relative obscurity. rospect he explained his choice of thesis During the early part of this century, the furor over topic-a statistical study of binary M stars-by recalling that early in his ca­ martian canals helped to discredit some planetary observers, reer, he had been asked to review a and diminished the scientific prestige of the field in general. book about the origin of the solar sys­ Meanwhile advances in telescopic technology placed the glam­ tem and soon realized that "the state of orous stars and galaxies within easy reach of ambitious young astronomy did not permit its solution." astronomers. Planetary science attracted few practitioners. He decided to find a closely related The coming space age would change all that, but in the problem that with "finite effort would decades before 1957 and Sputnik, the planetary flame was probably lend itself to a solution: the origin of double stars." kept alive by few scientists. One important practitioner was When he finished his doctorate, he Gerard P. Kuiper, who is now packed all of his personal possessions regarded as a father of and set sail for San Francisco, where he modern planetary studies. had been offered a year's fellowship at With this issue we start the Lick Observatory to continue the re­ an occasional series of bi­ search in his thesis. A stickler for detail, ographies in The Planetary both personal and scientific, Kuiper no­ tified the staff at Lick that his ship was Report, and we know expected to arrive at Oakland, Califor­ of no better person nia, at 7:51 a.m. Assuming no delay, he to begin with than predicted almost to the minute his ar­ Dr. Kuiper. rival on Mount Hamilton-precisely at -CMA noon on the day his fellowship began. SpUt Views ofDouble Stars He immediately unpacked the gratings that he had designed for the telescope at Leiden and that he would continue to use in California. Each grating was an arrangement of thin, parallel, black rods, mounted so they could be slipped as a unit over the front surface of the telescope's lens. The lens then produced

18 by diffraction a series of images, not simply a bright central picture but also the fainter images on either side. Ac­ cording to Donald Osterbrock's history of the Lick Observatory, "the grating al­ lowed Kuiper to measure the magnitude difference between two stars of very different brightness, such as the two components of a double star, by com­ paring a secondary image of the brighter star with the primary image of the fainter one." At Lick, Kuiper discovered that a high percentage of the most common stars are in fact double stars, which in tum led to the discovery that the mean distance between binary star compo­ nents is roughly the same as the dis­ tance of Jupiter or Saturn from the Sun, In 1948, Gerard Kuiper discovered Miranda, one of Uranus' The question would thus be raised in fu­ moons. Voyager 2 visited this little moon some 38 years ture studies of solar system origins: later, and found it to be one of the strangest objects in the Were the planets a special case of bina­ solar system with very diverse terrain. Some scientists speculate that Miranda has been broken apart-perhaps ry star formation, or vice versa? several times-by collisions with large, errant bodies. The Meanwhile, Kuiper had impressed gravitational attraction among the pieces eventually re­ Robert Aitken, who, preparing to retire formed them into a moon. Imtlge: JPUNASA as the director of Lick Observatory, urged the University of California to appoint Kuiper as his replacement. The 1943-1944 he managed a leave of ab­ specialty, planetary chemistry. economics of the Depression interfered, sence in Texas, during which he con­ After the war, when many military but Kuiper won a temporary appoint­ ducted a spectrographic study of the inventions became public, Kuiper ap­ ment at Harvard University. The next major planets. In rapid succession he plied the new infrared detectors, which year, 1936, he married an American, explored Triton (Neptune's largest both the Allies and the Germans had de­ Sara Fuller, and joined the faculty at moon), the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, veloped, to observing the heavens. the University of Chicago with a posi­ and four of Saturn's satellites, including Kuiper collaborated with R. J. Cashman tion at the Yerkes Observatory nearby Titan where he discovered several and W. Wilson to construct an infrared in Wisconsin. bands of methane-the fIrst sign of an spectrometer to study stellar spectra, At Chicago Kuiper joined Otto Struve atmosphere on any satellite. His post­ with which he discovered carbon diox­ and G. Van Biesbroeck. His responsibil­ doctoral research had honed his exper­ ide on Mars. Another product of the ities inCluded overseeing the construc­ tise as a spectrographer, and from this war-rockets-raised the question of tion of the McDonald Observatory in winter on Kuiper concentrated his atten­ the Moon's military potential, so the Air Texas, the fIrst of a cluster of new ob­ tion on objects within the solar system, Force decided that it had to be properly servatories that would be built with tele­ using the tools of the newly invented mapped. Under their aegis Kuiper pub- scop~s that incorporated a constantly improving state of the art. In 1937 Kuiper became a citizen of the United States and published a clas­ sic paper on stellar astronomy in which Titan is one of the most intriguing he presented a color-magnitude diagram objects in our so­ for galactic clusters. The next year he lar system, for its refmed his results, providing the basis atmosphere con­ tains the organic for the stellar temperature scale still in molecules that on use. In 1939 he celebrated the dedica­ Earth may have tion of the McDonald Observatory with been the precur­ sors of life. Gerard its high-quality spectrograph. Kuiper's discovery of methane on Ti­ Outbreak of War tan during the win­ ter of 1943-1944 With the outbreak of war, Kuiper went was the first evi­ to work for the Radio Research Labora­ dence of an atmo­ tory at Harvard as well as for the civil­ sphere on a moon. ian Office of Scientific Research and ItnBge: JPUNASA Development. During the winter of

19 lished a lunar atlas. In 1948 he organized a symposium on planetary atmospheres to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Yerkes Ob­ The great lunar servatory, the proceedings of which he crater Copernicus, edited as Planetary Atmospheres and about 90 kilome­ Their Origins, published in 1950. His ters across, dis­ plays the classic own paper in this volume suggested that features of a giant the solar wind was responsible for the impact scar: cen­ removal of hydrogen from the inner so­ tral rebound peaks lar system during the Sun's early T Tau­ whose material seems to have ri stage (a period when some stars throw come from deep in off huge amounts of gas and dust). the lunar crust, a Kuiper spent the next 20 years study­ bumpy flat floor, steep walls with ing planetary atmospheres and the ori­ great slump ter­ gin of the solar system. His prewar races, a hum­ study of double stars proved useful as mockyapron of ejecta, and long he applied the same methodology to rays of thrown-out bodies within the solar system. Where material spreading he had once studied the angular mo­ across the sur­ rounding mare menta (spin) of double stars, he later lavas. studied the division of angular momen­ Photograph: Lunar Or· biter IV, Frame 126M, tum between the Sun (a star) and its NASA planets as a key to understanding their beginnings. He explained this intellectu­ al development in his acceptance speech at a joint meeting of the American As­ sociation for the Advancement of Sci­ ence and the Franklin Institute where he received the Kepler Gold Medal in 1971 : "I felt that I had come to under­ more than an 'unsuccessful' double star The Media Take Notice stand the problem of double-star origin, with. the companion maSs 0pened out ~uipet: wa s a- fef!nal.:pefson,. always Eu­ at least in outline, [from which] it fol­ radially into a disk that in time devel­ ropean in dress, and stubborn in his lowed that the solar system was no oped the planets." opinions. But he was very American in his relations with the media. He caught their attention when he discovered car­ bon dioxide on Mars through spectro­ graphic investigation in February 1948, and suggested that the apparently green Seen through a areas on the Red Planet were covered telescope, the sur­ face of Mars is with low-order plants that "act like crossed by dark sponges and soak up water vapor pre­ features that ap­ sent in the air." Later that year he discov­ pear to grow and recede with the ered Miranda, a fifth moon of Uranus, seasons. Working and Nereid, a second moon of Neptune. from analogy with He delighted the public by suggesting Earth, some as­ tronomers specu­ that the frequency of planetary systems lated that these re­ was at least one for every thousand gions were stars, and thus there might be billions of covered with vege­ tation. Examining planets like Earth in the universe. Mars with spectro­ Kuiper continued to observe in Texas graphic equip­ where, in 1948, he attracted his first stu­ ment, Kuiper dent in planetary astronomy, Daniel L. recorded data that indicated no green Harris TIL In 1949, as director of Yerkes plants but that and McDonald observatories, he initiat­ were possibly con­ ed an asteroid search that resulted in the sistent with lichens. 1958 publication of 1,200 photographic Composite photograc.h: plates, co-authored by his second stu­ ~~a~~::g~::~f ~~;,. dent, Tom Gehrels. no/ogy Kuiper shifted his attention to the in­ ner planets: to Venus, charting its appar­ ent rotation, and back to Mars, observ- ing that the spectra he had recorded ear­ to the study of the Moon for evidence of vestigator on the Ranger program. And lier did not represent chlorophyll but planetary evolution. He believed that when the astronauts took their first steps, l were possibly consistent with lichens. the lunar maria (the smooth, dark re­ the debate with Urey ended. The maria Looking toward the outermost planets, gions that Galileo thought were seas, proved to be dark basaltic lava flows, he determined a new, more accurate hence their name) were products of vol­ and Kuiper's "hot moon" theory proved measurement of the diameter of Pluto, canic activity and that the Moon had right. which he found wanting as a planet. He gone through enormous internal Kuiper retired as director of the Ari­ took the controversial position that Plu­ changes over time. This "hot moon" zona laboratory in the summer of 1973 to ought to be recategorized as an es­ theory was rejected by his colleague, but continued making site visits to ex­ caped Neptunian moon. Kuiper directed Harold Urey, who held that the scars on pand the linkage of telescopes in the both the Yerkes and McDonald observa­ the Moon's surface were from impacts west. At the time of his death on Christ­ tories from 1947 to 1949, and again and that the Moon was an unadulterated mas Eve, 1973, he was on his second from 1957 to 1960. During this latter mass left over from the primordial solar site selection trip to Mexico in one period his third graduate student, Carl system. The two planetary scientists de­ week, exuding the same energy and en­ Sagan, picked up the torch as a leader in bated the Moon's nature for 15 years in thusiasm that had marked his Sumatran planetary science. the Proceedings of the National Acade­ adventure 44 years earlier. Meanwhile, Kuiper continued to wres­ my of Sciences and elsewhere. By the time of his death, he had been tle with the puzzle of the origin of the This was a debate for which there was made a Knight Commander of the Dutch solar system. The vortex model of the going to be an answer. In 1957 Kuiper Order of Orange and Nassau and had re­ solar system, postulated in an elemen­ undertook a second photographic lunar ceived the Kepler and Rittenhouse med­ tary way by Descartes and honed by C. atlas and, in 1960, he left Chicago to als. Posterity will recognize his name in F. von Weizsacker to a sophisticated found the Lunar and Planetary Labora­ the "Kuiper bands" (methane on Uranus theory in the 1940s, convinced Kuiper tory at the University of Arizona. and Neptune) and in the crater Kuiper (the that planets evolved in a dense universe The race to the Moon had begun and first crater identified on the surface of filled with whirling vortices of matter Kuiper helped NASA select the landing Mercury). Perhaps the most fitting memo­ that coalesce about spinning centers. sites for the Apollo astronauts. Now a rial is the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, Kuiper posited that planets formed out public figure, he predicted to a nation­ a flying telescope that circles the globe. of protoplanets, massive concentrations wide television audience in 1964 that "if in a huge disk of dust and gas. you walked on the Moon, it would be Bettyann Kevles is a Pasadena writer like crunchy snow." In preparation for whose latest book, Females of the Spe­ The "Hot Moon)) Controversy the Apollo landing, Kuiper worked on cies, was just released in paperback by Seemingly inexhaustible, Kuiper turned NASA's robotic probes as principal in- Harvard University Press.

NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory carries Instruments and astronomers high above Earth's interfering atmosphere. Among the discoveries made from the observatory are the rings of Uranus and the atmosphere of Pluto. Photograph: NASA/Ames Research Center ------Who Cares About Planetary Exploration?

by Jon D. Miller

ur private and public worlds to say nothing about the important Can Congress Ignore Space? are very busy places. There issues facing state governments, city What does this level of interest in Oare always new problems and governments, school boards and space exploration mean for the new challenges at work. Mean­ other groups involved in formulating political future of the space program? while, at home, children want to public policy. We live in an age of Can the Congress safely disregard play or need to be picked up from a political specialization. Only about the space program, focusing time lesson. Committees. Piles of great half of the adults in our society and resources on more popular issue books and aging magazines to read. bother to follow any of the major areas? The answer is no. In a highly A new crisis in the Middle East. A clusters of political issues, and those specialized political system like zoning dispute in the neighborhood. citizens who do try to participate in the United States, public policy on The car needs to visit the shop. Last public affairs typically report that specialized issues like the space pro­ week's dry cleaning needs to be they are able to stay reasonably well gram is largely negotiated between picked up. And there are one or two informed about only two and three the political decision makers and a issues before the Congress that you issue areas. group of space and science policy would like to write a letter about. The space program is but one of leaders. When the policy leadership Where did all of the hours go? several issue areas competing for group is divided, or when it needs to The basic problem of the modem each individual's time, and only exert more clout with political citizen is that our supply of time is about a third of adults in the US are decision makers, the policy leaders tum to citizens who are interested in space exploration. These citizens­ often called the attentive public for Figure 1: Percent "Very______Interested" in Selected Issues, United 72 States, 1988 space policy-then respond to the Medical discoveries call for support by writing or tele­ ______51 phoning their representatives in Local school issues Congress, collecting signatures on _____ 48 petitions and asking other politi­ Economic issues cally active friends to do the same. ______47 Military/defense Virtually all of the readers of The _____ 43 Planetary Report are attentive to Science discoveries space policy. There are 14 million _____ 40 space attentives in the United States, Farm issues comprising about 8 percent of the ____ 40 adult population. (See Figure 2 on New technologies page 24.) ____38 Nuclear power issues The attentive public may be ____ 34 thought of as the reserve army for I Space exploration the space program. When things are going all right, members of the Percent Very Interested: 0 20 40 60 80 100 attentive public follow the news concerning space activities, read , magazines about space exploration, watch PBS shows about science and ~: finite and the demands for a share of very interested in space exploration, space, and talk with other people that time have been growing according to a July 1988 survey who share their interest. If an issue steadily over recent decades. Try to conducted by the Public Opinion arises that concerns a space attentive, think of anyone you know who is Laboratory at Northern lllinois Uni­ he or she will likely exert more able to stay up to date on the full versity (see Figure 1 above). How­ influence in the political system than range of issues involving foreign ever, over the decade of the 1980s, most citizens because members of policy, economic policy, agricultural the percentage of adults with a high the attentive public for space are policy, housing policy, transporta­ level of interest in space exploration more likely to vote, contribute to tion policy, science policy, civil has risen from 26 percent in 1981 to campaigns, and call a legislator or 22 rights and the space program ... 34 percent in 1988. send a telegram to the White House. ~------

Attitudes of Attentives and Other Citizens on Space Policy Issues, 1988

The American space program should build a space station large On balance, the space program has paid for itself through the enough to house scientific and manufacturing experiments. creation of new technologies and scientific discoveries. AGREE ~ DISAGREE AGREE ~ DISAGREE Space attentives 84% 2% 15% Space attentives 76% 3% 21% Other citizens 71 5 24 Other citizens 54 7 39

The American space program should try to land astronauts on Mars in the next 25 years. How likely is it that a war in space will occur within the next 25 years? AGBEE ~ DISAGREE ~ POSSIBLE BUT NOT AT ALL Space attentives 70% 2% 28% .I..IKEl.Y NOT TOO LIKELY UIill.Y Other citizens 50 6 43 Space attentives 6% 30% 64% Other citizens 9 46 32 The American space program should develop a scientific and mining colony on the Moon within 25 years. In general, would you say that you are in favor of or opposed to AGBEE ~ DISAGREE Space attentives 69% 4% 28% President Reagan's proposal that the United States build a new Other citizens 48 5 47 defensive space weapons system-sometimes called the Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars"? Is the government spending too little, about the right amount or too fA'iQB ~ OPPOSEP much on exploring space? Space attentives 51% 11% 38% TooLiTILE ABOUT RIGHT TOO MUCH Other citizens 41 21 38 Space attentives 37% 47% 15% Other citizens 16 37 45

Currently, the United States spends approximately twice as much Survey Note: The July 1988 survey results reported above are based on on the military uses of space as on the civilian or scientific use of telephone interviews with a national probability sample of 2,040 adults, including 167 "space atlentives." The interviews were conducted by the space. In your view, is this division of resources about right, or Public Opinion Laboratory at Northern Illinois University. The study was would you prefer greater emphasis on the military or greater jointly supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF grant SRS- emphasis on civilian and scientific uses? 8807409), WGBH (Boston) and Geoff Haines-Stiles Productions. The CURRENT EMPHASIZE EMPHASIZE margin of error on point estimates involving an approximately even dis­ .P.lS.I.QK MI.I.IIABY QMUAN tribution is plus or minus 2 percent. Percentages may not add to 100 Space attentives 13% 13% 69% due to rounding of figures and/or "no response" answers. Other citizens 22 16 58

Sp~ce Attentives Agree Society, confmning the view that using nuclear power to generate elec­ The attentive public for space holds members of the Society are mem­ tricity. This level of division often very positive attitudes toward the bers of the attentive public for space leads to political stalemate. In the space program. Nearly 70 percent of policy. area of space policy, the policy the attentive public favors increased Space attentives are divided over leaders and the attentive public are federal spending for civilian and the Strategic Defense Initiative, or generally of one mind. scientific purposes in space while "Star Wars" program. Half of the Citizens who are not attentive to a only 13 percent would increase attentives interviewed in July 1988 given issue area have little influence military spending in space. Some 76 indicated that they favored building on the formulation of public policy in • percent of space attentives agree that a defensive space-weapons system, that area. For example, I personally the space program has paid for itself while 38 percent opposed the idea. have little interest in agricultural "through the creation of new Another 11 percent were unsure policy in the United States and even technologies and scientific discov­ about their position on the program. less knowledge about that area. I have eries." Over 80 percent of space Only 6 percent of space attentives no idea what kinds of issues will be attentives favor the construction of a thought that a war in space was dealt with in the congressional . space station "large enough to house likely within the next 25 years . agriculture committees. And while it . scientific and manufacturing experi­ may seem impossible to those of us ments," and 70 percent believe that Power of Unanimity deeply involved with space explora­ the space program should include an The political power of space atten­ tion, the overwhelming majority of attempt to land an astronaut on Mars tives comes from the high level of American citizens have no more within the next 25 years. The same policy agreement among its mem­ interest in the space program than I proportion would like to see a bers and from the absence of an have in agriculture. A majority of scientific and mining colony estab­ organized anti-space group. By way citizens who are not attentive to space lished on the Moon within the next of contrast, the policy leaders and will respond-when asked by an 25 years. These results are similar to the attentive public for nuclear interviewer-that the government the results from questionnaires power issues are deeply divided spends too much for space programs. mailed to members of The Planetary about the safety and desirability of However, they will not write a letter 23 about it and are likely to have little set of issues and who stay informed information about the level of about those issues magnifies several The Planetary Society Survey spending for space. These weakly hundred fold over the influence of held opinions will have little impact citizens who limit their participation Since early 1987, The Planetary on the political system. to one vote every four years. The Society has mailed hundreds of attentive citizen can have significant thousands of questionnaires to indi­ Being Effective in a Democracy influence in the policy process if he viduals interested in science and To return to my original question: or she is willing to focus his or her space. While the responses to these Who cares about space exploration? energies on a few issue areas, to surveys are not a scientific sampling, The answer is four or five thousand become well informed about those they do provide valuable information space and science policy leaders and issues, to work through organized abOut the attitudes of an informed about 14 million citizens, who com­ groups when available and to make se'ctor of the public. More than prise an attentive public for space his or her views known clearly 40,000 members of The Planetary policy. The high level of agreement and persuasively to elected repre­ Society have responded to one or among space attentives and the sentatives. another of our two surveys, which absence of an organized anti-space It would be desirable for more gives us a very good idea of how at movement give the combination of Americans to have a high level of least 30 percent of our members feel on important issues facing the US and international space programs. Figure 2: Stratified Model of Policy Formulation Results from both surveys reflect approximately 90 percent suppOrt for increased US funding of its space program and for identification of a Decision makers focused goal for the space program. International cooperation, with the USSR and other spacefaring nations, Policy leaders receives approval from 75 to 80 per­ cent of Society members sending in questionnaires. More than 90 per­ cent believe The Planetary Society Attentive public should serve as an advocate for planetary exploration. Particurar missions also draw strong favorable ratings. In the most recent sampling (December 1988), a joint US/USSR effort to land astro­ nauts on Mars enjoyed 70 percent support, as did development of a Non-attentive public new heavy-lift launcher to carry larger payloads into orbit and to other planets. The radio astronomy Search for Extraterrestrial Intelli­ gence received 65 percent support. Asked to prioritize specific mis­ sions, respondents in the most space and science policy leaders and interest in space exploration and for recent survey gave the highest the attentive public for space policy a higher percentage to be members ranking to an Earth-orbiting space considerable influence in the poli­ of the attentive public for space station, followed by a permanent tical system. Through groups such as policy. But 14 million individuals Moon base and then human explo­ The Planetary Society, thousands­ who understand the system and ration of Mars. In the earlier version and sometimes tens of thousands­ work within it will be sufficient to of the questionnaire (spring 1987). of space attentives let their elected sustain and advance our current which did not include the space representatives know about their programs of space exploration. station as an option, the first and support for the space program. second priorities were the Moon It is important that space Jon D. Miller is Director of the base and human exploration of attentives stay well informed about Public Opinion Laboratory and Mars, followed by exploration of the space activities and that they be Professor of Political Science at satumian moon Titan. Other mis­ willing to make their voices heard Northern Illinois University. He has sions receiving about half as much when they feel strongly about a authored two books-Citizenship support were robotic exploration of question. Often we hear people say in an Age of Science (Pergamon, Venus and a mission to gather that they don't get involved in poli­ 1980) and The American People and cometary matter for return to Earth. tics because they are only one vote Science Policy (Pergamon, 1983~ -Tim Lynch, Director of Programs in millions. Given the degree of and is currently completing Scienti­ and Development political specialization, the relative fic Literacy, which will be published 24 influence of citizens who follow a by Plenum in early 1990. by Louis D. Friedman

CAPE CANAVERAL-The United '94 mission and the Mars '98 sample Allan Bromley, a distinguished nuclear States launched its first spacecraft return." He and other Soviet officials physicist at Yale, served on the White targeted beyond Earth orbit in more reiterated that Mars '94 was still a first House Science Council during the than ten years on May 4, 1989. Magel­ priority. Reagan administration. lan, the Venus radar mapper, took flight •Assistant Secretary .for Oceans and on the seventh day of the launch period WASHINGTON-As we went to press, International and Scientific Affairs, after correction of a fault in the fuel the following space policy officials in Department of State: Fred Bernthal, a system. the Bush administration had been Reagan appointee, will apparently named. continue in this post. MOSCOW-The Phobos mission ·NASA Administrator: The resig­ ·Office of Management and Budget: came to an abrupt end March 27, 1989, nation of James Fletcher has brought Norine Noonan is the staff member after an unsuccessful maneuver left the Deputy Administrator Dale Myers to responsible for matters related to space spacecraft tumbling randomly. the helm as Acting Administrator, policy. The ambitious mission was a partial pending confirmation of Admiral In the US Congress the key leaders success. Phobos 2 had reached Mars, Richard Truly, President Bush 's for space policy are: gone into orbit and taken thousands of nominee. Truly's confmnation depends ·Senate Committee on Commerce, measurements and dozens of pictures of on passage of an act of Congress ex­ Science and Transportation: Chairman Mars and Phobos before the final empting him from the requirement (in Ernest Hollings (D-SC); Ranking rendezvous failed. the 1958 National Aeronautics and Minority John Danforth (R-MO) The loss is not expectep to have a Space Act) that the Administrator not ·Senate Subcommittee on Science, profound effect on Soviet space plans. be a military officer. Technology and Space: Chairman However, Soviet space officials ac­ ·Executive Director, National Space Albert Gore, Jr. (D-TN); Ranking Mi­ knowledge that the accident will Council: Mark Albrecht, former nority Larry Pressler (R-SD) require major re-examination of space­ legislative assistant on defense matters ·House Committee on Science, Space craft manufacturing. A special com­ to Senator Pete Wilson (R-CA), will and Technology: Chairman Robert Roe mission has been set up by Glavkos­ report to Vice President Dan Quayle, (D-NJ); Ranking Minority Robert mos, the Soviet space agency re­ who is chairman of the council, as Walker (R-PA) sponsible for the mission operations specified by Congress in 1988. -House Subcommittee on Space Sci­ and spacecraft. ·Science Advisor (Assistant to the ence and Applications: Chairman Bill As we went to press, the commission President for Science and Technology): Nelson (D-FL); Ranking Minority F. had not yet reported on the cause of the James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) failure or on recommendations for the -Senate Appropriations Committee: future. An international meeting in Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV); Rank­ Moscow was being planned for mid­ Background: Richard Truly ing Minority Mark Hatfield (R-OR) May to review these subjects and to air As head of NASA's Space Shuttle -Senate Subcommittee on HUD and preliminary science results. program since February 1986, Independent Agencies: Chairwoman In the face of Soviet economic and Richard Truly has presided over Barbara Mikulski (D-MD); Ranking political reform issues, there has been the return of the Shuttle to flight Minority Jake Gam (R-UT) considerable discussion in Moscow of after the Challenger accident. ·House Appropriations Committee: weakened support for space exploration. Truly has twice flown Shuttle Chairman Jamie Whitten (D-MS); The Mir orbital space station was left missions: in November 1981, Ranking Minority Silvio Conte (R-MA) unoccupied in late April, a development when Columbia became the first -House Subcommittee on HUD and that has been interpreted in some US "used" vehicle in space, and again Independent Agencies: Chairman Bob press reports as a policy retreat. Soviet in August-September 1983, when Traxler (D-MI); Ranking Minority Bill officials maintain that the shut -down is he commanded the first nighttime Green (R-NY) a temporary measure to effect repairs to launch and landing. -Senate Budget Committee: Chair­ the electrical system for use in future A Navy flier since 1960, Truly man James Sasser (D-TN); Ranking station operations. joined the NASA astronaut tean: Minority Pete Domenici (R-NM) Academician Valery L. Barsukov, a in 1969. He took part in the -House Budget Committee: Chair­ key figure in the Soviet planetary Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions. man Leon Panetta (D-CA); Ranking program, told reporters at the Kennedy From 1983 to 1986 he headed the Minority Bill Frenzel (R-MN) Space Center that despite "new cir- Navy Space Command . . cumstances, we can assure the reali­ Louis D. Friedman is the Executive zation of our main tasks . . . the Mars Director o/The Planetary Society. 25 with long lead times. But just two weeks after the initial telegram, several fast-publication magazines began to explore the ramifications of the new discovery. Science reporter Ivars Peterson, writing in the Febru­ ary i8 Science News, offers the most basic and relldable article, focusing on the pulsar's remarkable spin, which is so fast that one wonders why the neutron star doesn't fly apart. Peterson also writes about evidence that there is an object of Jupiter-like mass revolving about the by Clark R. Chapman pulsar; that would be especially remarkable because such an object would have been inside the outer en­ velopes of the star before it exploded. More likely it was created in the supernova explosion. Or perhaps it is just an illusion. he cosmos seems, because of vast distances, to A short article by reporter Mitch Waldrop in the unfold slowly and majestically. The drama of February 17 issue of Science describes how Pennypack­ T Supernova 1987 A is an extraordinary exception. er and his colleagues checked to be sure their results After its appearance two years ago in the Large Magel­ weren't spurious, but Waldrop leaves his readers with a lanic Cloud, the supernova evolved from day to day healthy dose of skepticism, pending more data. Both and week to week. Even two years later, with the super­ Peterson and Waldrop note the failure of Pennypacker nova long since faded from naked-eye viewing, as­ and colleagues to see the pulsar in late January, two tronomers can still observe weekly changes. For in­ weeks after the original discovery. As they report, per­ stance, rings and arcs surrounding the supernova now haps the pulsar was temporarily obscured by the ex­ extend to several times the apparent size of Jupiter, panding supernova shell. which implies an enormous true size, light-years across. A lively but somewhat more technical article by Some arcs may be "light echoes" as the brilliant explo­ David Lindley in the February 16 issue of the British sion is reflected toward us by dust douds a couple of science-news journal Nature is oblivious to the follow­ light-years away from the supernova. up observations, although Lindley references the !AU Supernova 1987 A provides insight to the vibrant as­ telegram that mentions them. Lindley is more positive pect of the universe that we seldom witness. Although about the reality of the strange new pulsar. He also such explosions are a natural phase in the evolution of writes much about "instant science" speculations of many stars, and provide the stuff of which planets, other researchers. Whether these ideas will pan out­ trees, and people are made, they rarely happen close indeed, whether the original observations can be trusted enough to us to be measured. Even the Magellanic at all- remains to be seen. But the traditional modes of Clouds are far away. But the release of immense energy scientific communication (publications in journals and is so sudden in a supernova, and the effects so brilliant, talks at annual meetings) have been largely superseded that daily and monthly changes can be tracked from by telephone, fax, and electronic mail. Fortunately, fast­ Earth with comparative ease. publication magazines like Science News, Science and Nature can keep scientists and the public abreast of at Pulsar Mysteries least some of the largely unrecorded debates about The academic journals in which scientists normally rapidly evolving scientific research. publish their results often take six or ten months to put an article in print. Some astronomical events, especially Future ofthe Space Program those dealing with the solar system, require more rapid A sober assessment of the future of NASA's planetary communication. For this reason, the International As­ program is offered in a March 1989 Scientific Ameri­ tronomical Union (IAU) has a telegram service. As­ can article by John Logsdon of The George Washington tronomers whose needs are less urgent or who have less University (and a Planetary Society Advisor) and Ray money can subscribe by mail; the 3 x 5 inch cards ar­ Williamson of the Congressional Office of Technology rive at my office every few days. The telegrams are al­ Assessment. They conclude that while a viable space so available via electronic mail. program requires access to space, "the development of An especially exciting telegram is number 4735, dat­ a space transportation system should not be mistaken ed February 8, 1989. Carlton Pennypacker, John Mid­ for a national space program." dleditch and their collaborators report in spare language NASA's planetary program office still hopes to imple­ that on January 18 they discovered a new pulsar at the ment missions developed several years ago by its Solar site of Supernova 1987 A. A pulsar is a star that varies System Exploration Committee. In an attempt to com­ in brightness very rapidly, nearly 2,000 times a second municate with a broader audience, that committee's re­ in this case, making it the fastest pulsar known. Shortly ports have been rewritten for a general audience in the after the fITst pulsar was discovered two decades ago, just-published, handsomely illustrated "Planetary Explo­ astrophysicists concluded that pulsars must be rapidly ration Through Year 2000: Scientific Rationale," avail­ spinning neutron stars, created in supernova explosions. able for $7 from the Superintendent of Documents, US Pennypacker and his colleagues had been watching Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. for a pulsar to emerge from the glow of Supernova 1987 A, but the traits of the new pulsar proved astonish­ Clark R. Chapman's new general-audience book with ing. There has been no time for scientists to even begin David Morrison, Cosmic Catastrophes, will be pub­ 26 debating these fresh results in the traditional journals lished by Plenum Publishing Company in April. •

SNAKE DESIGN TEAM er generation [to know more tary enthusiasts, under the The participation of devel­ about] space exploration and auspices of The Planetary So­ oping nations in future plane­ As the first private citizens' space technology," writes ciety's Mars Watch program. tary exploration seems as­ group to playa role in a plan­ Nalaka Gunawardene, past The clirnax was a series of sured if the dedication of Sri etary expedition, The Plane­ president of the Young As­ events in September for the Lanka's amateur astrono­ tary Society is designing part tronomers' Association (YAA). perihelic opposition of Mars, mers, even in the midst of a of a vehicle that will explore He and Ray Jayawardhana of including three nights when civil war, can flourish else­ the Red Planet during the So­ the Sri Lanka Astronomical hundreds turned out to look where too.-LDF viet Union's Mars '94 mis­ Association (SLAA) put to­ through binoculars and tele­ sion. (You should have re­ gether a report of 1988 activi­ scopes at Mars at its most VOYAGER WATCH ceived a letter describing our ties sponsored by local plane- visible in 17 years. work on this project.) The Interest in Voyager Watch is Society is responsible for the spreading rapidly as groups design of the guide-rope, or HEI.P THE PLANETARY SOCIETY BUY ITS HOME across North America make SNAKE, that will carry sci­ plans to celebrate the space­ entific instruments and stabi­ We are in fmal negotiations to buy the wonderful old De­ craft's August encounter with lize the Mars balloon for signer-Craftsman house that The Planetary Society has Neptune. flight at low altitudes (see called home for the past few years. There is still time to Schools and astronomy September/October 1988 contribute to our Building Fund and-if you give $100 or groups organizing Voyager Planetary Report). more-to get your name inscribed on a plaque thanking events may borrow the Bud Schurmeier, former those who have helped the Society make this purchase. Grand Tour slide and audio­ project manager of Voyager The plaque will be prominently displayed to all who come cassette program, produced and Associate Director at the visit our international headquarters. by the Society and narrated Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Our members have generously contributed enough to by Al Hibbs, the "Voice of has been selected by the So­ guarantee a down payment, and we are moving ahead on Voyager." Videotapes from ciety'S Board of Directors as the deal. But the larger the down payment, the lower our the Voyager missions are also manager for our SNAKE pro­ monthly mortgage payments will be, and the more money available. ject. Working with him on we will have to fund future projects. Every additional con­ For a FREE information the project team are James tribution frees us a bit more to continue the work of The packet just write to Voyager French, former chief engineer Planetary Society-promoting planetary exploration and Watch, c/o the Society. Educa­ of the American Rocket Com­ the search for extraterrestrial life. tors, ask for the packet with pany; Titan Systems, Inc., of As our longtime members know, the Society moved in­ lesson plans and activities for Los Angeles; and the Center to this large and charming building in 1985, as our staff the classroom.--Susan Lend­ for Aerospace Engineering at increased to serve our growing membership. The house roth, Manager of Events and Utah State University. Other was built in 1903 by the world-renowned architectural Communications consultants and contractors team of Charles and Henry Greene, who were leaders in will be brought onto the pro­ the Arts and Crafts movement. This is one of the first ject team as needed.-Louis homes that they built in the true Craftsman style, and we KEEP IN TOUCH D. Friedman, Executive Di­ treasure it for its careful construction and elegant use of rector woods. Many of our members have come to visit us since Our mailing address: we moved in, and they have all been enchanted with the The Planetary Society Society's home. 65 N. Catalina Avenue FROM SRI LANKA Last year our landlord decided to sell the property and, Pasadena, CA 91106 Remarkable testimony of because he shares our goals and admires our efforts, he of­ Call for an updated . . worldwide support for plane­ fered it to us at a price substantially below market value . events calendar: tary exploration appears in The Directors realized this was a chance to set up a per­ (818) 793-4328 east of the letters to the Society from manent international headquarters, where our members Mississippi countries such as Bangladesh, could come and meet the staff, and planetary scientists (818) 793-4294 west of the Iran and Sri Lanka, where is­ and engineers could plan future exploration. Mississippi The sues of survival loom larger Planetary Society will soon sign the papers to ac­ General calls: quire its permanent headquarters. If you would like more than issues of scientific ad­ (818) 793-5100 vancement. information about how you can help, please write us here Yet "there is interest and at 65 N. Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106. And come Sales calls ONLY: enthusiasm among the young- visit us and see the home that you have made possible. (818) 793-1675 27 -Tim Lynch, Director of Programs and Development ------

How feasible would it be to send when it was not needed for beaming wires in the mesh. The chips would maser (microwave) pushed probes to power down to Earth. Also, by that time have chemical sensors as well as optical the various points of interest in our we will have developed the microfabri­ sensors, so the mesh could chemically solar system? Are there any such pro­ cation technology to make the ultralight analyze anything it landed on, after jects currently being researched? "Starwisp" wire mesh sensor/comput­ sending back pictures of what it saw -Mike Porter, Dallas, Texas er/transmitter probes. just before it landed. Some people at Stanford University's Nearer term, many Department of I'm afraid it is not possible to send Electronics Laboratory Radio Science Defense and NASA research centers are maser-pushed probes to the planets and Group have recently shown interest in looking seriously again at beaming laser moons in our solar system any time research on building such a wire mesh power over long distances to power dis­ soon. It would require a large power sta­ probe. The probe would have a dis­ tant spacecraft or planetary rovers. The tion in space first. But once such a solar tributed computer consisting of millions laser could be in orbit or it could be on powered satellite were built, the mi­ of chips, with each chip placed at an in­ the ground and beam its power over crowave beam could be used for push­ tersection of the wire mesh and commu­ long distances between Earth's surface, ing space probes to the nearer planets nicating with the others through the Low Earth Orbit, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit, the Moon and the planets, so la­ ser beaming is likely to come first. [A laser amplifies light, a maser amplifies microwaves. Their operating principles are similar but the wavelength of their electromagnetic radiation differs great­ A hypothetical solBr-powered ly.] The laser power could be used di­ satellite beams rectly to heat propellant for propulsion, microwaves or could be converted into electricity by out to B collect­ Ing lens, which solar cells that are specially designed focUSBsthe for the laser light to achieve conversion beamsontoB efficiencies exceeding 50 percent. The wire-mesh electricity could be used in electric ion probe. The ra­ diation pres­ thrustors for propulsion, to power on­ sure of the board electronics or to power motors on microwaves planetary rovers. pushesthe probe at high -ROBERT L. FORWARD, Forward acceleretlon to­ Unlimited ward Its target planet or star. Now and then someone asks a question for which the answer is very differe n t from one scientist to the next. Here we present two answers to one question. a "mini debate." Where does "deep space" begin? -Cynde Fierro, West Covina, California In the wondrous voyages of the mind, launched by science fiction writers be­ fore there was any possibility of human travel in space, concepts and words were carried over from the great ocean wanderings of our species here at home. Thus we have read of desperately tired crews, navigating with their last re­ serves of care and skill, coming finally to "planetfall" to meet only desolation. FACTINOS Or, in other imaginings, to find worlds ruled out, including nearby galaxies. Four scientists from NASA's Ames Research both rich and strange. A generation of Here is a simple analogy: The nearest Center have reexamined Voyager 1 's infrared youngsters, this generation that is now star is about a hundred million times spectra and radio-occultation observations of boldly striving outward despite both hu­ farther away from Earth than the Moon. Saturn's moon Titan and found that the satel­ man and inanimate obstacles, grew up If we scale everything down by a factor lite's atmosphere is so saturated with methane with those oceanic words: launch, the of 100 billion, we can get the edge of that it should condense and fall as rain. Strang­ long beat to windward out of a gravity the solar system (taken to be halfway to er still, because of conditions in the atmosphere, well, standing watches, navigating by the nearest star) down to about five feet. it rains without clouds. the stars, dreaming away the long years Now the scaled-down distance from The group, headed by Owen B. Toon, simu­ as the ship runs down her easting Earth to the Moon becomes about a lated the moon's atmosphere using the optical through the galaxy. Deep, yes, space is tenth of the wavelength of visible light, properties of the constituents of Titan's air, very deep and it's dark as the ultrama­ which is about the thickness of the then compared the results to what the space­ rine of the ocean a thousand miles from black spots that appear on a soap bubble craft detected. The researchers confirmed ear­ land. So it's no wonder that "deep" just before it breaks. lier analyses that 0.2 to 0.6 percent of the came to be the word for space beyond There are perfectly good terms to de­ atmosphere is hydrogen. The moon also has I our neighborhood. scribe the space within (cislunar) and patchy "clouds" of methane lying about 10 to As soon as satellites were up, the pio­ beyond (translunar) the Moon's orbit, 30 kilometers above the surface. But they say neers saw the chance to move onward just as we have "interplanetary" and that because the droplets are probably larger and claimed everything above Earth or­ "interstellar" space and even "inter­ than 0.1 millimeter in diameter, "the methane bit as deep space. It was romantic, but it galactic" space. Anyone who doesn't clouds more closely resemble terrestrial rain was also good public relations: Among like amateur astronomers' slang can use than terrestrial clouds." the world's many tracking and data sys­ these well-defmed terms without being -from Sky and Telescope tems, the American and Soviet Deep . misunderstood. o Space Networks hold a special place. -ANDREW T. YOUNG, California A geologic depression covering most of west­ For a time, it seemed that the Moon State University, San Diego ern Czechoslovakia may be a crater left by an would become another home for hu­ immense object that smashed into Earth mil­ mans; hence the term "deep" would be­ References to "gravity-assist" or lions of years ago. Michael Papagiannis and come inappropriate for lunar missions. "gravity-boost" are common in de­ Farouk El-Baz of Boston University studied After Apollo, humanity fell back. So to­ scriptions of interplanetary spacecraft satellite images of central Europe taken from day the Moon, as inaccessible as it was trajectories, implying that velocity can 22,500 miles (37,350 kilometers) in space and in 1959, remains an object of yearnings. be gained by passing near an interme­ concluded that the apparent crater is 200 miles Deep space begins there. diate body. Since gravity is an attrac­ (about 330 kilometers) in diameter. -JAMES D. BURKE, Jet Propulsion tive force only, wouldn't any velocity "The object that would cause such an im­ Laboratory gained approaching the body be lost pact crater could have been 50 miles (about 80 during departure? kilometers) in diameter. It must have begun The use of the term "deep space" seems -David A. Fann, Maitland, Florida burning and possibly breaking up as it entered to have originated among amateur as­ the Earth's atmosphere and plunged deeply tronomers. The earliest use I am aware Because all velocity is relative, it must into the ground," said El-Baz. of is the long-running column headed be measured in comparison to some ref­ . "The impact of such a large object would "Deep Sky Wonders" in Sky and Te I e­ erence point. Velocity is a measure of have been equivalent to an explosion a trillion scope magazine. It was defined by L. S. speed (its magnitude) and direction. So times more powerful than the atom bomb at Copeland when it first appeared as in answer to your question, yes, velocity Hiroshima," Papagiannis said. "marvels recommended for observation gained during approach to a planet is -from the Los Angeles Times through amateur telescopes." In March lost during departure relative to the o 1946 he gave a more explicit defmition, planet. But the spacecraft's velocity rel­ Several researchers have said that Uranus' starting off that month's column with ative to the Sun can be increased or de­ rings look young, less than a billion years old, "Amateurs who look beyond the solar creased. compared to the rest of the solar system at 4.6 system are invited to hunt for the fol­ When the planet's gravity pulls on billion years. But Larry Esposito of the Univer­ lowing ...." the spacecraft as it flies by, the trajec­ sity of Colorado at Boulder suggests that the "Beyond the solar system" is certain­ tory is bent and the velocity's direction rings may not be young at all. Instead, he pro­ ly the widely accepted use of the term. is changed. The spacecraft's speed with poses, their chunks keep grinding against one The Dictionary of Astronomy and As­ respect to the planet is the same at the another in a way that continually creates new tronautics by Armand Spitz and Frank beginning and end of the flyby-{)nly particles. Without some such regenerative pro­ Gaynor (1959) defmes deep space as a its direction is different. If the trajec­ cess to sustain them, he notes, Uranus' rings "colloquial term for space beyond the tory is bent the right way when the as Voyager 2 saw them would be gone (due outermost boundaries of our solar sys­ change in the spacecraft's direction is to atmospheric drag) in a billion years or less. tem." As amateur telescopes have grown added to the planet's speed, the craft's In the solar system's early days, according larger, "deep-sky" has become deeper. velocity in relation to the Sun is greater to Esposito, the material that later became the The general notion was always that after flyby. [Gravity-assist was explained uranian ring system may have been nothing these things were dim and required rela­ in more detail in the March/April 1982 more than 10 to 12 moons, each about 200 tively large telescopes and/or magnifi­ Planetary Report.] kilometers across. Since then the rings have cation to show their structure. Anything -LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN, The Plane­ been in a continual state of evolution. visible to the naked eye was certainly tary Society -from Jonathan Eberhart in Science News 29 If you-can't§end your kids to Mars, send Mars to your kids ... a Hugg-A-Planet'!Mars"'4hatis. NEW 'fhis companion to our popUlar ugg-A-Planet-Earth will become a family-favorite. Bright orange and red contrasts tan and gray;:.to-distinguish4lat:PJains, cratered areas, uneven TEMS tere in and vol nic regions. -- #526 Hugg-A-Planet-Earth fllAN[I~ ~[YONIJ 14" diameter $15.00 DISCOVERING THE OUTER SDLAFl SYSTEM #528 Hugg-A-Planet-Mars 8" diameter $13.50

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Earth from Space These spectacular laser prints reveal the beauty of our home planet, Earth.

#305 Apollo - photograph of Earth, full disk #310 Earthprint - photograph of North #315 Earthrise - photograph of Earth from (16" x 20"). $8.00 America (8" x 10"). $4.00 the Moon (16" x 20"). $8.00 OROER PRICE (IN PRICE (IN PRICE (IN NUMBER • New Items us OOUARS) N~'lJ::R • Videotapes us OOLLARS) N~'lJ::R • 35mm Slide Sets us DOLLARS) 148 Planets Beyond: Discovering tile 415 VHS Jupiter, Saturn 8. Uranus: 205 Chesley Bonestell's Vision Outer Solar System 416 BETA The .YDIUr Missions of Space by Mark Littmann. 286 pages. $20.50 417 PAL (SO min. videotape) $30.00 (40 slides with sound cassette) $15.00 528 Hugg-A-Planet-Mars 425 VHS Mars and Mercury $30.00 210 Remember Halley's Comet 8" diameter pillow. $13.50 426 BETA (SO min. videotape) (20 slides with description) $10.00 427 PAL 213 Mars (20 slides with description) $10.00 PRICE (IN N3~~~~ • Books us OOUARS) 440 VHS Universe $30.00 220 mInI.1 8. Zat Mars 441 BETA (30 min. videotape) (40 slides with sound cassette) $15.00 108 Beyond Spaceship Earth: 442 PAL Environmental Ethics and tile 225 YuutU 8. 2 at Jupiter Solar System 460 VHS Togetller to Mars? $15.00 (40 slides with sound cassefe) $15.00 edited by Eugene C. Hargrove. 461 BETA (SO min. videotape) 230 YuutU Saturn Encounter 336 pages. $20.00 462 PAL (40 slides with sound cassette) $15.00

126 First Light: The Search for the PRICE (IN 231 ~ Saturn Encounter Edge of the Universe N~'lJ::R • Color Reproductions us OOLLARS) (40 slides with sound cassette) $15.00 by Richard Preston. 263 pages. $17.00 305 AaIIIID - photograph of Earth, full 235 Yanur Mission to Uranus 129 living in Space-A Manual for disk (16"x20" laser print) $ 8.00 (20 slides with description) $ 7.00 Space Travellers by Peter Smolders. ISO pages. $13.50 308 Earth at Night (23"x35" poster) $ 6.00 PRICE (IN N~'lJ::R • Other Items us DOLLARS) 133 Mirror Matter: Pioneering 310 Earthprlnt - photograph of North Antimatter Physics America (8"xl0" laser print) $ 4.00 505 An Explorer's Guide to Mars (color map of Mars) by Robert L. Forward and Joel Davis. 315 Earthrise - photograph of Earth from $ 5.00 262 pages. $17.00 the Moon (16"x20" laser print) $ 8.00 510 Back Issues of The Planetary 135 Nemesis: The Death-Star and 321 Report - each volume contains six Uranus Encounter - 4 pictures from issues (Vol. 1-5,6; Vol. 11-1,5,6; Vol. Other Theories of Mass Estinction Uranus and its moons $ 4.50 by Donald Goldsmith. 166 pages. $14.00 111-2,6; Vol. IV-2; Vol. VI-l,4; Vol. 322 Jupiter - photograph of southem VII-4,5,6 have. been sold out.) 140 Out of tile Cradle: Exploring the hemisphere (16"x20" laser print) $ 8.00 Specify the issues you are ordering Frontiers Beyond Earth 323 Mars - landscape from Yi!si.wI Orbiter by volume and number. Each $ 2.00 by William K. Hartmann, Ron Miller (16"x20" laser print) and Pamela Lee. 190 pages. $11.00 $ 8.00 515 The Planetary Society Logo - 324 The New Explorers (22"x34" bookmark (6"x2") (2 for $1.50) $ 1.00 152 The Quickening Universe: Cosmic poster) Evolution and Human Destiny $ 7.00 516 We're Saving Space for You - by Eugene T. Mallove. 268 pages. $17.00 325 Other Worlds (23"x35" poster) $ 7.00 bookmark (6"x2") (2 for $1.50) $ 1.00 157 Starsailing: Solar Sails and 330 Planettest '81 - Satum and the 520 ExplOring the SOt.O QUI Interstellar Travel F-ring (two 22"x35" posters) $ 5.00 1989 calendar $ 4.50 by Louis D. Friedman. 146 pages. $ 9.00 333 Saturn - full view photograph 526 Hugg-A-Planet Earth - 158 Space-The Next 25 Years (16"x20" laser print) $ 8.00 14" -diameter pillow $15.00 by Thomas R. McDonough. 334 Solar System Exploration 540 Men's T-Shirt - white with blue 237 pages. $16.00 (35"x35" map with booklet) $ 9.00 logo. S M L XL $ 9.00 165 The Grand Tour: A Traveler's Guide 335 Y!IUlIItl at Saturn 543 Mission Stamps - 10 sets to the Solar System (set of five posters) $16.00 (4 stamps per set) $ 1.00 by Ron Miller and 545 Planetary Report Binder - blue with William K. Hartmann. 192 pages. $10.00 336 Solar System In Pictures - 9 pictures $10.00 gold lettering (2 for $16.00) $ 9.00 170 The Home Planet 550 TPS Buttons - blue with logo $ .50 edited by Kevin W. Kelley. 256 pages. $36.00 337 Uranus - sunlit crescent (16"x20" laser print) $ 8.00 555 Starwatcher's Decoder Set $35.00 183 The Search for Estraterrestrial Intelligence: listening for Life In 340 "You Are Here" (23"x29" poster) $ 5.00 560 The Yanur Spacecraft the Cosmos paper model $14.00 by Thomas R. McDonough. • Prices 256 pages. Soft Cover $13.50 All prices are in US dollars. Payment can be made by • Shipping 185 The Surface of Mars personal check, money order, MasterCard, Visa Card or Items ordered together are not necessarily by Michael Carr. 232 pages. $16.00 American Express. shipped together.

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MAIL ORDER AND PAYMENT TO: THE PLANETARY SOCIETY, 65 N. CATALINA AVE., PASADENA, CA 91106 In this painting Paul DiMare Imagines what Pluto and its relatively large moon, Charon, might look like to a passing spacecraft. Pluto is smaller than our own Moon, and its density suggests that it is a mix of ice and rock; Charon is nearly half as large as Pluto.

Paul DiMare owns an art studio in Cleveland where he pursues his interest in space-related subjects. His work has appeared in Air & Space, Astronomy, Geo, National Geographic and Sky & Telescope.

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