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Planetary Report Report The PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXVI Number 2 March/April 2006 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Arrives Volume XXVI Table of Number 2 Contents March/April 2006 A PUBLICATION OF Features On to Pluto! New Horizons Heads Off to From 6 Explore the New Frontier The After years of fighting for a mission to Pluto, we’re finally on our way! Thanks to Planetary Society members acting hand-in-glove with the scientific community, Editor this mission was saved from the chopping block again and again. New Horizons science team member John Spencer witnessed the long-awaited launch. Here he here’s an ominous sense of déjà vu shares some of his thoughts and experiences from the launch site. Taround The Planetary Society today. The political outlook for space exploration Stardust@Home: You Can Help Find Particles has not been this bleak since the early 8 from Distant Suns! 1980s, when the White House Office of When the Stardust Sample Return Capsule parachuted back to Earth last January, it Management and Budget (OMB) tried to brought with it the first-ever samples from a comet and another elusive substance— pay for the space shuttle by cutting missions particles from interstellar space. Faced with trying to find only a few dozen micro- to explore other worlds. scopic particles in about 1,000 square centimeters of collector gel, scientist Andrew How close a parallel is it? David Stock- Westphal thought to call on the public to help. man, then head of OMB, floated the idea of switching off the Voyager spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: even before Voyager 2 reached Uranus and 12 The Next Step in Mars Exploration Neptune. Did you hear something eerily On March 10, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars and maneuvered its way similar last year? into orbit. It promises the highest-resolution images of the surface yet captured, so Now, in the proposed fiscal year 2007 we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months and years. Project Manager budget, the administration is cutting the Jim Graf and Project Scientist Rich Zurek explain what we can expect from this long-sought mission to Europa, not funding next generation of Mars orbiter. telescopes to search for planets around other stars, and slashing research into the possi- Annual Report to Our Members bilities of life elsewhere in the universe. 18 2005 marked The Planetary Society’s 25th anniversary, and what a year it A quarter-century after our founding, was—Huygens revealed the surface of Titan, Deep Impact showed us the inside of Society members are again being called to a comet, and we tried to send our own Cosmos 1 into space. Here we have put action. In this issue, you see how effective together a report on our activities and an overview of the Society’s financial status. we can be: New Horizons is on its way to Pluto, after a years-long Society push. Stardust@home is analyzing samples from Departments space with our members’ help. A fleet of Members’ Dialogue spacecraft is exploring Mars in fulfillment 3 of our shared hopes. 4 We Make It Happen! Yes, today there are other demands on the US budget, but we will not give up on the 17 World Watch future. We will fight to keep alive the hope 20 Questions and Answers of reaching other worlds. Join us. —Charlene M. Anderson 22 Society News On the Cover: Contact Us Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has arrived! This powerful spacecraft is capable of returning 10 times as much data Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 as all previous Mars missions combined. Because every new General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 look at the Red Planet has been full of surprises, our view of E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://planetary.org this neighboring world is in for some dramatic changes. This image of the Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum face of Mars The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published bimonthly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US are $30 (US dollars); in Canada, $40 (Canadian dollars). Dues in other countries are $45 (US dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. was compiled from images taken by Mars Global Surveyor’s Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. Mars Orbiter Camera in January 2005. Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, A. J. SOBCZAK Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH Image: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Science Editor, BRUCE BETTS Viewpoints expressed in columns and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, or its advisers. ©2006 by The Planetary Society. Cofounder Members’ CARL SAGAN Dialogue 1934–1996 Board of Directors ‘ Chairman of the Board NEIL deGRASSE TYSON Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History President WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director, Geophysical Laboratory, Society Priorities everything else related to space, place to explore. If we start all Carnegie Institution of Washington Vice President I have been a supportive Plane- the things I want to see most over now because of another BILL NYE tary Society member, donating to are humans on the Moon for the water spot, we’ll end up delaying science educator Executive Director a number of Society appeals for first time in my life, and signifi- the outer planets’ exploration LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN funds. Recently I donated to the cant strides made toward getting for years. It’s too early to con- JAMES BELL Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University campaign to influence the US some of our kind to the Red clude anything about which ANN DRUYAN CEO, Cosmos Studios, Congress and NASA to restore Planet. For me, and I think for satellite is the most important author and producer funding for a Europa mission. many Society members and for investigating possibilities of DAN GERACI President and Chief Executive Officer, While I trust this money will be space buffs, getting people to life, so our judgment is to follow Phoenix Investment Partners, Ltd. used wisely to try to restore at other planetary bodies for the the water—first to Europa, and HEIDI HAMMEL Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director, least some funding to science sake of exploration and science then think about what is next. Research, Space Science Institute JOHN M. LOGSDON missions, I must reconsider my is more exciting, engaging, and —Louis D. Friedman, Director, Space Policy Institute, support for the Europa campaign important than any remote sens- Executive Director George Washington University Advisory Council Chair given the astounding news from ing mission, unmanned plane- CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY planetary scientist Enceladus. I now feel that many tary probe, or astronomical re- Space Mission BRUCE MURRAY of the goals we hope to achieve search program. Drama Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, California Institute of Technology at Europa can be more likely As we, The Planetary Society, The Hayabusa article (see the ELON MUSK attained at Enceladus (since I am prod NASA and Congress in January/February 2006 issue) Chairman, CEO, SpaceX JOSEPH RYAN too realistic to believe funding what we believe to be the right was excellent. The mission was Executive Vice President and for both missions can be expected direction, let us be sure NASA incredibly complex for what I General Counsel, Marriott International STEVEN SPIELBERG for many years). does not get more on its plate assume most consider a director and producer If The Planetary Society is than it can handle. It would crush “fledgling” spacefaring nation. GEORGE YANCOPOULOS President, Regeneron Research Laborabories too entrenched in its position to my hopes to see the Vision for Hayabusa should be considered and Chief Scientific Officer change with new information, Space Exploration flounder into a success—a major one. The it is showing itself to be as in- oblivion. public needs to be kept in- International Council ROGER-MAURICE BONNET Executive Director, flexible as the bureaucracy we —KIRBY RUNYON, formed throughout the develop- International Space Science Institute lament at NASA. I still support Spring Arbor, Michigan ment of a space mission so the YASUNORI MATOGAWA Associate Executive Director, a mission to Europa, but only “winner or loser” media splash Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency RISTO PELLINEN after a mission to Enceladus. The Planetary Society has can be avoided and the incremen- Director of Science in Space Research, I hope the Society can quickly strongly supported NASA’s new tal intrigues and accomplish- Finnish Meteorological Institute redirect its effort in this attain- focus on getting the CEV built, ments can be experienced as Advisory Council able and exciting direction! and if you read our statements they occur. People like a mystery, BUZZ ALDRIN —WILLIAM LAUB, on planetary.org, one of our and missions should be treated RICHARD BERENDZEN Denver, Colorado concerns with NASA’s proposed that way—the journey being as JACQUES BLAMONT RAY BRADBURY fiscal year 2007 budget is that important as the destination. DAVID BRIN While I am dismayed with the it is the tip of the iceberg in the The [staff of] The Planetary FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ cutting of valuable science mis- diversion of funds from the rest Society—and we members— ARTHUR C. CLARKE FRANK DRAKE sions in NASA’s fiscal year 2007 of NASA for the space shuttle.
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