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Board of Directors CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY President Vice President Director, Laboratory Professor of Planetary for Planetary Studies, Science, California Cornell University (nstitule of Technology RECOLLECTION AND HOPE: LOUIS FRIEDMAN HENRY TANNER Executive Director Corporate Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, Our Fifth Anniversary Issue JOSEPH RYAN California Institute O'Melveny & Myers of Technology Board of Advisors DIANE ACKERMAN CORNE LIS DE JAGER IN THIS SPECIAL January/February 1986 issue of The Planetary Report, we look back poet and author Professor of Space Research, The Astronomical Institute at over the first five years of The Planetary Society. We've chosen to mark this anniversary ISAAC ASIMOV Utrecht. The Netherlands by telling the Society's story to let our members know how the organization that they so author HANS MARK generously support came into being. As those who closely read this story will notice, the RICHARD BERENDZEN Chanceflor, President, University of Texas System Society did exist although as a nebulous entity before January, 1981, so this issue does American University JAMES MICHENER not mark exactly our fifth anniversary. But in that month the first issue of The Planetary JACQUES BLAMONT author Report appeared, and the members of the new organization had something in their hands Chief Scientist Centre National d'Etudes PHILIP MORRISON that indicated a real, vital and growing Planetary Society. It's convenient to choose dates Spatia/es. France Institute Professor, Massachusetts to mark progress in any endeavor, and this date will serve to mark the beginning of The RAY BRADBURY Institute of Technology poet and Buthof Planetary Society. PAUL NEWMAN We begin this issue with "The Planetary Society: A Short History" telling how the Soci­ FRANK DRAKE actor Dean. ety was born. To produce this we chose a writer from outside the Society, to bring an Division of Natural Sciences, BERNARD M. OLIVER University of California at Chief. evenhanded perspective to the story. David Salisbury, who covered both planetary science Santa Cruz SETI Program. NASA/Ames Research Center and The Planetary Society for the Christian Science Monitor, agreed to take on the task. LEE A. DUBRIDGE SALLY RIDE His readable and insightful article covers only the earliest history of the Society - a his­ former presidential science advisor astronaut tory that most members probably don't know. ROALD Z. SAGDEEV JOHN GARDNER Interspersed throughout this history are the recollections and hopes of Society princi­ Director, Institute for founder, Cosmic Research. Academy pals, Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman - people whose dream of a Plan­ Common Cause of Sciences of the USSR etary Society has today become reality. Several Advisors to the Society have contributed THEODORE M. HESBURGH HARRISON H. SCHMITI their thoughts upon this milestone, remembering where we have been and projecting President, former US Senator, University of Notre Dame New Mexico where we might go. SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER LEWIS THOMAS In this issue we also report on some of the successful events and research projects the educator and jurist Chancellor, Memorial Sloan Society has recently supported. The "Steps to Mars" conference with its commemoration Keltedng Cancer Center GARRY E. HUNT of the Apollo-Soyuz mission attracted more media attention than any other activity in the Head of Atmospheric Group, JAMES VAN ALLEN Imperiat Colfege of Science and Professor of Physics, history of the Society. The Planetary Society's support of an expedition to Mars, done Technology, London, UK University of Iowa cooperatively by the spacefaring nations, has brought the idea before the public. Many The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published six voices have now joined ours in calling for this mission to put human footprints on Mars times yearly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106 near the turn of the millennium. Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON; To give impetus to this idea, The Planetary Society formed the Mars Institute. Christo­ Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE; pher McKay, head of the Institute, here reports to members on what we have accomp­ Associate Editor, LYNDINE McAFEE; Editorial Assistant, DONNA STEVENS; lished, and still must do, to accomplish this historic beginning. Art Director, BARBARA SMITH Mars has not been the only focus of The Planetary Society's attention. We have funded Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are and put into action the most powerful equipment now operating in the Search for Extra­ those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers or terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Paul Horowitz, the Harvard physicist who conceived and advisors. Copyright 1C>1 986 by The Planetary Society. In Canada, SOCQnd Class Mail Registration Number 9597 built both Projects Sentinel and META (Megachannel Extraterrestrial Assay), recounts the steps leading to these projects. COVER: A combination of frozen carbon If we measure success in terms of discoveries, then our most successful effort must be dioxide, or "dry ice, " and water ice covers the Asteroid Project of Eleanor Helin. This project, supported by The Planetary Society, the south pole of Mars in this image recon­ has found half of all the near-Earth asteroids known today. In this issue, Mrs. Helin structed from data returned during the Viking mission. The martian polar caps, thanks the members who have so generously supported her work. and the Intriguing layered terrain that may After reading through this special issue, you will know where The Planetary Society hold clues to the planet's past climate, will has been and where it is going. We hope you'll be with us as we work toward a bright be prime targets of exploration when human beings reach Mars. future for planetary exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life. Image: Laurence Soderblom, United States - CHARLENE M. ANDERSON GeologIcal Survey by David F. Salisbury ive years ago a new star blazed up gent life in the galaxy, Sagan has continu­ Saturn and its magnificent rings graced brightly in the fragmented firmament ally been sifting the available data in the cover of the first Planetary Report, search for signs of alien life. which was put together in 1980 as Fof American space interest groups. Voyager 1 approached the planet. That star was The Planetary Society. Thus, after sinuous channels were dis­ With its spectacular growth from a hand­ covered on Mars, he argued eloquently that ful to over 70,000 members within 12 months they were probably cut by water, that this of going public - which made it the fastest­ implies Mars was once more Earthlike, growing membership organization in and, if so, that life may have evolved there. America over the previous decade - this Similarly, the reddish haze surrounding new group rapidly outstripped the member­ Saturn's satellite Titan immediately drew member of the geology department at the ships of the three dozen or so older organi­ his attention because it was similar in color California Institute of Technology, with its zations of the type. [n so doing, it proved to the complex stew of prebiotic chemicals ties to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) decisively that public interest in space ex­ created in origin-of-life experiments on nearby, it was natural for him to become ploration was much broader than most pol­ Earth. So, until measurements indicated involved in the geology of the Moon and iticians, and even many advocates, had surface temperatures too cold for bio­ other planets. thought. Finally, the Society easily reached chemistry, he hypothesized that an atmos­ As he moved into this new field, Dr. a critical membership "mass" which made pheric greenhouse effect might have kept Murray brought with him a natural conser­ it self-sustaining and has allowed its mem­ Titan warm enough for life to begin. vatism, an insistence on hard fact and a bers and leaders to become a significant "Certainly the possibility of life else­ refusal to be drawn into speculation based voice in the space policy arena. where in the solar system has focused my on incomplete evidence. [n technical de­ If The Planetary Society were a star, it attention on the issue of extraterrestrial en­ bates this often put him on the other side would surely be located in the constella­ vironments, but [ believe [ have rigorously from Sagan. For instance, he resisted the tion Gemini. For it is the brain-child of two followed the evidence where it leads," interpretation of the martian channels as exceptional men: Carl Sagan and Bruce Sagan says. Thus, he was an early suppor­ evidence for the past existence of liquid Murray. [n a sense, the two are the odd ter of the view that Venus was too hot to water until all other possibilities had been couple of planetary science. Their per­ support life and that seasonal changes on examined and rejected. sonalities and styles are strikingly different, Mars were due to dust rather than biology. Then, in 1976, Murray was tapped to almost antithetical. Yet a deep mutual re­ Articulating Wonder become the director of JPL, plunging him spect has kept them good friends even With his ability to articulate the sense of directly into the space policy arena. For when they have disagreed strongly on mat­ wonder and excitement involved in plane­ the US planetary program this was a schizo­ ters of style and substance. Just how differ­ tary science, Sagan naturally became a fa­ phrenic period. In his tenure, Murray pre­ ent the two are can be seen in how each vorite of the news media. For years he sided over some of its most spectacular came into his chosen profession. walked the narrow line dividing scientist achievements: the Viking landers on Mars For Dr. Sagan, the route into planetary from popularizer and only rarely stumbled.

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