The Planetary Report, to Make Those Discoveries Acces 20 Questions and Sible to All of Our Members
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- --_.- .. .. _-- The Volume XIV On the Cover : Skywatchers will be poised to observe the heavenly Table of Number 1 stri ng of pearls kn own as comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 January/February 1994 thi s July when it crashes into Jupi te r's swirling atmo Contents sphere. This is an en largement of an image captured by the Hubble Space Tel escope (HSl) on July 1,1993, showing the reg ion of the brig htest nucleus of the comet, torn apart when it came too cl ose to Jupiter in 1992. This "bright nucleus " is actually a group of at least four separate pieces. The span of th is enti re Features image covers abou t 64,000 kilomete rs (40,000 miles). North is at the lower right. Image: H.A. Weaver and Bodies at the 16 Readers' T.E. Smith, Space Te lescope Science Institute, NASA 4 Brink Service Decades ago legendary planetary scientist The new mathematical field of chaos is Gerard P. Kuiper theorized that a band of difficult to penetrate, yet its somewhat comets orbited at the edge of our solar whimsical name and surprising predic From system. Telescopes of his time couldn't tions intrigue even the mathematically test this hypothesis, but now, working unsophisticated. Our featured book looks The with new equipment, astronomers have at chaos' applications to understanding discovered the first evidence that Kuiper our solar system. Editor was right. World Jupiter Watch: 17 Watch es, we have changed the 8 The Celestial Necklace It's a time of birth and death for NASA: Y design of The Planetary Breaks Its program to search for extraterrestrial Report; your eyes do not deceive This July, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 will radio signals has been canceled by Congress, you. We have opened up space collide with Jupiter. The Planetary Society which at nearly the same time awarded between lines of type and unified is already planning events and activities to new starts to two spacecraft missions. the design of our regular depart bring this "once-in-a-thousand-lifetimes" Recovery from the loss of Mars Observer ments. happening to as many people as possible is under way, while NASA's space station The endeavor of planetary around the world. is reborn in a new partnership with Russia. exploration is, by its very nature, extremely challenging: To send 10 A Rover's Journey: 18 Nevvs and robots and, when we are very Linking Tvvo Worlds Revievvs daring, humans into hostile alien Our great rover adventure continues with Clark Chapman reviews a recent book environments requires a willing another chapter in the development of a about the Magellan mission (and an offer ness to undertake hard work. But, mobile robot designed to explore Mars. ing of our Readers' Service) from the per when new worlds are revealed We travel back to the challenging volcanic spective of a working planetary scientist. for the first time, the hard work terrain of Kamchatka, this time to test new is worth the cost. Each planet technologies- telepresence and virtual Society explored widens our understand reality-that may significantly advance 19 Nevvs ing of the universe around us. our exploratory abilities. We have more opportunities for you to It is our challenge, on the edito get involved with Society activities. rial staff of The Planetary Report, to make those discoveries acces 20 Questions and sible to all of our members. It is Departments Ansvvers a difficult task to, for example, One of the benefits of planetary explo make an arcane point of celestial 3 Members' ration is that it shows us other worlds to mechanics readily understand Dialogue which we can compare our own. For able. I know we don't always The staff here has been overwhelmed by example, is there an ozone layer on Mars? succeed. But, with your support, your response to our plans to put the name The answer to that question and a discus we keep trying. of every Planetary Society member, as of sion of the spokes in Saturn's rings fill With this redesign, we hope October 15, 1993, on Mars. Here we share this column. you will find it easier to "access" a sampling of letters with the entire mem the information contained in our bership. We also discuss the loss of Mars '. pages. As always, I ask you to let Observer, and the coming millennium. us know if we have succeeded. -Charlene M. Anderson The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published bimonthly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society. 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91 106, (818) 793-5100. It is available to members ofThe Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US or Canada are $25 US dollars or $30 Canadian. Dues outside the US or Canada are $35 (US). Printed in USA. Second-class postage pending at Pasadena, Californ ia, and at an additional mailing office. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. A Publication of Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE SOCIE TY Assistant Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Copy Editor, GLORIA JOYCE THE-PL.A~T1RY Production Editor, MICHAEL HAGGERTY Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH o -B- 0 Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, .~ -e- ¢ its officers or advisors. © 1994 by The Planetary Society. o Board of Directors CARL SAGAN Presiden t Director, Laboratory for Planetary Studies, Members' CorneflUniversity BRU CE MURRAY Vice President Professor of Planetary Science, Dialogue California Institute of Technology LOUIS FRIEDMAN Executive Director NORMAN R. AU GUSTI NE Chairman and CEO, Martin Marietta Corporation JOHN E. BRYS ON Melnbers on Mars the Mars mission in 1994. pushed by people who really care Chairman and CEO, Southern California Edison I don't know if anyone else had I was part of the past, now I'll can do much more than befuddled JOSEPH RYAN this reaction, but I read Charlene be part of the future. Thank you, politicians. O'Melveny & Myers STEVEN SPIELBERG Anderson's article, "Awaiting the Planetary Society. -JEROME A. MUSILLO, director and producer Anaconda, Bayside, New York First Explorers: Society Members' -JOHN ALTIERI, Board of Advisors Names to Be Archived on Mars," Montana DIANE ACKERMAN through tears of joy. The COining poet and author BUZZ ALDRIN Born without the means for a Spacecraft's Milienni uln Apollo 11 astronaut RICHARD BERENDZEN college education and without the Tough Job As a member of the New Millen educator and astrophysicist physical constitution that would I'm writing in response to David nium Committee, I believe that I JACQUES BLAMONT Chief Scientist, Centre National allow space travel, I have had to Budda's letter in the November/ am not alone in thinking that The d'Etudes Spatiales, France content myself with the knowledge December 1993 issue of The Planetary Society is working on RAY BRADBURY poet and author that my tax dollars have ridden Planetary Report. While VCRs ideas that are critical to the future ARTHUR C. CLARKE into orbit with Mercury and may get "banged around" more of humanity. Furthermore, as we author CORNELIS DE JAGER Gemini, and to the Moon with than interplanetary spacecraft, are about to embark into the new Professor of Space Research, The Astronomical Institute at Utrecht, Apollo. To find out that my name they do not operate in the same millennium, our Society is emi the Ne therlands FRANK DR AKE will be on board the Mars landers conditions. Spacecraft have to nently qualified to help define a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, when they arrive at Mars in 1995 endure temperatures well below powerful set of visions, plans and University of California, Santa Cruz LEE A. DUBRIDGE means more to me than anyone room temperature and are subject programs for our planet. former presidential science advisor JOHN GARDNER will ever know. ed to magnetic fields, solar winds I propose that our Society's founder, Common Cause Many thanks for the article and causing communication interfer directors, staff, advisors and MARC GARNEAU the good tidings it brought. ence, particles traveling at tens of 100,000 members together develop Canadian astronaut GEORG IY GOLITSYN -JERRY L. BOCKMaN, thousands of kilometers per hour, a document laying out one possi Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences Farmington, New Mexico and even unknown conditions. In ble road to a destination promising THEODORE M. HESBURGH President Emeritus, addition, spacecraft cannot be the possibility of adventure, pros University of Notre Dame I have been a member of the redesigned and "remarketed" with perity, harmony, knowledge and SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER educator and jurist Society for a good many years. the relative ease, speed and low hope. Ultimately, the world com GARRY E. HUNT During that time I've celebrated cost that consumer products are munity will decide whether and space scientist, United Kingdom SERGEI KAPITSA many space exploration triumphs afforded. how to act upon these ideas. At the Institute for Physical Problems, and mourned many more space As for the public's image of the very least, this document should Russian Academy of SCiences GEN. DONALD J. KUTYNA (RET.) technology failures. I've felt per space program, I think it has less stimulate the development of other former Commander, US Space Command JOHN M. LOGSDON sonally humiliated by NASA. I've to do with project failures than ideas coming from other regions, Director, Space Policy Institute, been reduced to watching Star with the public's almost apathetic interests or biases. The free inter George Washington University HANS MARK Trek: The Next Generation for its attitude toward science.