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Planetary Report Report The PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXVI Number 5 September/October 2006 SMART-1 at the Moon Volume XXVI Table of Number 5 Contents September/October 2006 A PUBLICATION OF Features From 6 Our Adventure With Juno The A few months ago, renowned professor Dave Stevenson contacted us to tell us about an unusual partnership he had recently struck. For the last few Editor years, Dave, a space science veteran, had been working with a young protégé still in high school on the upcoming Juno mission to Jupiter. Written as a he summer of 2006 started off with dialogue between professor and student, their story bridges the generations Theat waves blistering the Northern through space exploration. Hemisphere of our planet and closed with one of the most burning disputes in recent Out of This World Books popular science, as headlines around the 9 Just in time for the hectic holiday season, we’ve selected some of our world trumpeted—in print and on computer favorite recent books to share with you. From a personal autobiography from screens—“Pluto Demoted, No Longer a astronaut Tom Jones and a behind-the-scenes look at the Mars Exploration Planet.” Rovers mission, to the intimate essays in Dava Sobel’s Planets and an artful Some people exulted, believing the de- look at a hundred years of space exploration, there is something for everyone. motion was long overdue. Others vented their outrage and vowed to fight, while SMART-1: Europe at the Moon petitions went up across the Internet and 12 In early September, the SMART-1 spacecraft plummeted into the schoolchildren wrote letters of protest to the Moon, leaving a small crater on the surface it had so closely examined for unfeeling scientists who dared to diminish more than a year. The dramatic end to the mission—actually a controlled and their favorite member of the solar system. perfectly timed planned impact into the lunar surface—was a fitting close for Has the arcane assignment of scientific the highly successful mission. Here, SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing nomenclature to natural objects ever before shares with us the story of Europe’s first-ever mission to the Moon. sparked a firestorm? I can’t think of another instance, although I admit my limited knowledge of scientific and popular history. Whether or not you agree with the Departments International Astronomical Union’s decision that Pluto is not a bona fide planet, you 3 Members’ Dialogue can’t deny that the debate is good for space exploration. To see sane people grow 4 We Make It Happen! immoderately passionate over the scientific term for a ball of rock and ice demonstrates 18 World Watch how deeply they can care about worlds they cannot see, except through the telescopes 19 Society News and spacecraft built to explore the universe around us. 20 Questions and Answers It’s up to us in The Planetary Society to build this passion into commitment to explore the worlds around us—including Pluto, planet or not. —Charlene M. Anderson Contact Us Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 On the Cover: General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 SMART-1, Europe’s first mission to the Moon, is a success! E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://planetary.org Designed to test technologies, such as deep space electric propulsion, for future interplanetary missions (the spacecraft 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 United States are $30 (U.S. dollars); in Canada, $40 (Canadian dollars). reached the Moon using only 60 liters, or just under 16 gallons, Dues in other countries are $45 (U.S. dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. of fuel), SMART-1 is a sparkling example of international coop- Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, A. J. SOBCZAK eration among Europe, the United States, Japan, and India. Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH Illustration: The European Space Agency (ESA) and AOES Medialab 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. Members’ Cofounder 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 What Is a Planet? The International Astro- maybe brook . or perhaps WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director, Geophysical Laboratory, Here, on the Swedish island nomical Union’s Planet creek? Carnegie Institution of Washington Vice President where I live, lies a city. It Definition Committee (PDC) —JOSEPH CIOTTI, BILL NYE has only 25,000 inhabitants had articulated a clear, and Honolulu, Hawaii science educator Executive Director but it is a city, proud of its far less ambiguous, set of cri- LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN history. It has walls; it has teria for classifying planetary The Debate JAMES BELL Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University medieval gates. Its name is status. Given the gravity of Continues ANN DRUYAN CEO, Cosmos Studios, Visby and it was founded in this issue, I would agree with Thank you for retaining the author and producer the 13th century. There may the PDC that size does matter. metric to imperial measure- DAN GERACI President and Chief Executive Officer, be villages in this world So, Pluto and 2003 UB313 ment conversions in The Phoenix Investment Partners, Ltd. HEIDI HAMMEL with more inhabitants, but [now called Eris and formerly Planetary Report. First, I Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director, that does not matter. People nicknamed Xena] should doubt that the United States Research, Space Science Institute JOHN M. LOGSDON decide what body of people have the “right stuff,” as will convert fully to metrics Director, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University we call a city. would Ceres. in my lifetime. Second, the Advisory Council Chair CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY Pluto has its city wall, The beauty of the PDC’s conversions save me the has- planetary scientist though we call it an atmo- proposed definition was that sle of pulling out my conver- BRUCE MURRAY Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, sphere. It has its three gates it furthermore resolved the sion tables whenever I read California Institute of Technology we call moons. And it has ELON MUSK distinction between moon- the publication. Last, and Chairman, CEO, SpaceX its Planetary Rights, handed planetary systems and double maybe least, I do not believe JOSEPH RYAN Executive Vice President and over to it about 80 years ago. planets. As we venture out- the continued use of both General Counsel, Marriott International People decide what names ward and extend our horizons metrics and imperial mea- STEVEN SPIELBERG director and producer we give to bodies of mass to other solar systems, this surements will lead to the GEORGE YANCOPOULOS President, Regeneron Research Laborabories circling the Sun. Scientific definition would have served destruction of The Planetary and Chief Scientific Officer conferences should deal admirably. Society. with scientific research. Of course, no classifica- Keep up the good work! International Council ROGER-MAURICE BONNET Calling Pluto a planet— tion system is bulletproof or —ERNEST SALAZAR, Executive Director, International Space Science Institute or not—is a matter of taste. asteroid-proof. There will Key West, Florida YASUNORI MATOGAWA Associate Executive Director, For historical reasons, and always be some shadow of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency RISTO PELLINEN because of the fact that it ambiguity. Future explorers The issue is not whether you Director of Science in Space Research, has an atmosphere and three of alien worlds will be just as save some space or ink. The Finnish Meteorological Institute moons, Pluto will always befuddled when crossing the issue is continued perpetua- Advisory Council remain a planet to me. banks of some newly discov- tion of a measuring system BUZZ ALDRIN —RINDERT BOLT, ered extraterrestrial river . that is absolutely useless. The RICHARD BERENDZEN Slite, Sweden JACQUES BLAMONT or should that be stream . no, focus should be on the future, RAY BRADBURY including the younger gener- DAVID BRIN ations that will be learning FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ ARTHUR C. CLARKE from The Planetary Report. FRANK DRAKE Do not clutter their minds OWEN GARRIOTT with useless units of measure. GARRY E. HUNT BRUCE JAKOSKY —DAVID SWEETMAN, THOMAS D. JONES Dyer, Nevada SERGEI KAPITSA CHARLES E. KOHLHASE JR. LAURIE LESHIN Please send your letters to JON LOMBERG Members’ Dialogue HANS MARK JOHN MINOGUE The Planetary Society ROBERT PICARDO 65 North Catalina Avenue JOHN RHYS-DAVIES Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 KIM STANLEY ROBINSON DONNA L.SHIRLEY or e-mail: [email protected] Illustration: © Brian Rea for The New York Times 3 THE PLANETARY REPORT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 by Bruce Betts Look for Star Dust from can download the movies of Stardust’s collector and search Stardust—Stardust@home for telltale tracks from the particles. I want to extend our Goes Live special thanks to all those members who helped with the When NASA’s Stardust spacecraft returned samples of beta testing of the site before the actual data movies were comet Wild 2 to Earth in January 2006, it also returned obtained. Your work made a difference! interstellar dust. It may sound at first like something If you think you have what it takes, or that your kids you’d want to wipe off with a rag, but this dust is from do, or your dog (OK, maybe not the dog), then find other stars, the first unaltered such interstellar material out how to sign up and start reviewing movies at ever on Earth.
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