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The Planetary Report (Lssn 0736-3680) Is Published Six Times Yearly at the Editorial Offices of the Planetary Society, Goal

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The Planetary Report (Lssn 0736-3680) Is Published Six Times Yearly at the Editorial Offices of the Planetary Society, Goal Board of Directors CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY President Vice President Director, Laboratory Professor of Planetary Letters to the Editor for Planetary Studies, Science, California Cornell University Institute of Technology We encourage our members to write us on topics related to the goals of LOUIS FRIEDMAN HENRY TANNER The Planetary Society: continuing planetary exploration and the search for Executive Director Corporate Secretary and Assistant Treasurer. California extraterrestrial life. Letters for publication should be short and to the point. THOMAS O. PAINE Institute of Technology Former Administrator, NASA: Address them to: Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 91687, Pasadena, CA 91109. Chairman, National JOSEPH RYAN Commission on Space O'Melveny & Myers Board of Advisors I would like to express my appreciation to Eleanor Helin for allowing the members of The DIANE ACKERMAN CORNELIS DE JAGER poel and author Professor of Space Research, Planetary Society to name asteroid (3129) 1979MK2. Needless to say, I was very pleased to learn The Astronomiea/lnstitute at ISAAC ASIMOV Utrecht, The Netherlands that my suggestion of "Bonestell" was selected. author HANS MARK I have been fascinated by Chesley Bonestell's art ever since I was old enough to reach The Conquest RICHARD BERENDZEN Chancelfor, President, American University University of Texas System of Space on my father's bookcase, Many other people, whose interest in space was kindled or JACQUES BLAMONT JAMES MICHENER enhanced by his art, would playa major role in making space travel a reality. Few artists, if any, Chief Scientist, Centre National author have affected the future as greatly and as positively as Mr. Bonestell did. d'Etudes Spatiales, France PHILIP MORRISON In the 19th century, landscape artists depicted the great American west and inspired pioneers RAY BRADBURY Institute Professor, poet and author Massachusetts to embark on voyages of exploration and settlement. Today, space artists serve the same role for Institute of Technology FRANK DRAKE our new fronti er. Dean, Division of Natural PAUL NEWMAN Sciences, Univers{ty of actor RONALD PALUDAN, Tuscon, Arizona California at Santa Cruz BERNARD M. OLIVER ARTHUR C. CLARKE Chief, SET! Program, The Planetary Society greatly mourns the passing of Chesley Bonestell, who died June 11, 1986 at author NASA/Ames Research Center his home in Carmel, California. The Society staff would like to thank Mr. Paludan for suggesting the LEE A. DUBRIDGE SALLY RIDE name "Bonestell" for asteroid (3129) 1979MK2. Mr. Bonestel/'s obvious delight in his asteroid former presidential astronaut science advisor ROALD Z. SAGDEEV touched us all; we felt a rare pleasure in being able to honor him in his lifetime. - Editor Director, Institute for JOHN GARDNER Cosmic Research, Academy founder, Common Cause of Sciences of the USSR I feel that a major goal in the US space program should be to put spacecraft in orbit about each THEODORE M. HESBURGH HARRISON H. SCHMITI of the outer planets, It may be possible to construct a generic spacecraft to achieve these goals. President, former US Senator, University of Notre Dame New Mexico With our experience from the Voyager flybys, we may be able to gain much additional knowledge SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER LEWIS THOMAS from such an orbiter program. educator and jurist Chancellor, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ROALD STEEN, Woodbury, Minnesota GARRY E. HUNT Head of Atmospheric Group, JAMES VAN ALLEN Imperial Col/ege of Science and Professor of Physics, Technology, London, UK University of Iowa Several ideas occurred to me while reading the report of the Rogers commission. I do not feel that commercial space ventures are NASA's strong point. They work much better with a scientific The Planetary Report (lSSN 0736-3680) is published six times yearly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, goal. Let an American company get into the space launch business, NASA could use the shuttle 65 North Catalina Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106 flights that would have been used for commercial purposes to build the international space station Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON; Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE; and for planetary missions or other shuttle-specific work. Associate Editor, LYNDINE McAFEE; With the pressure of economy off, NASA could concentrate on new scientific endeavors that Assistant Editor, DONNA STEVENS; would return the United States to leadership in space. This is a nation that pioneered space and it Art Director, BARBARA SMITH would be a shame to let that lead slip through our fingers because we could not face the simple Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary truth. NASA was set up for scientific goals, not to be the low-cost supplier of space access. Society, its officers or advisors. ©1986 by The Planetary Society. In Canada, Second Class Mail Registration Number 9597 RANDALL S. LUHMAN, Tulsa, Oklahoma COVER: The thin crescent of blue Uranus is I have noted that you favor a mission to Mars , Being a sanitary engineer, health physicist, indus­ surrounded by its five major satellites in this trial hygenist and toxicologist, I would oppose any such frivolity, We are not able to control our montage created from images returned by environment here on Earth. We generate more trash than any other nation and are rapidly making Voyager 2 during its January 1986 encounter with the uranian system. The satellites are, the United States into a trash dump, Perhaps we could devise a plan to send the trash to the Moon clockwise from top left: Ariel, Umbriel, rather than spend money to go to Mars! Oberon, Titania and Miranda. .Voyager 2 dis­ I realize that we should always look to the future , but this Mars business is asinine. We should covered ten smaller satellites orbiting continue to obtain scientific data from our shuttle endeavors and use it to our advantage, between the planet and Miranda, the inner­ most large satellite. Images: JPUNASA WILLIAM H. MROE, Charleston, West Virginia ~-----------------------------=~~~--~~--~~------------------------------------------ Sir William Herschel Discovers Uranus On ~anuary 24, 1986, The Planetary Society held a symposium at the California Institute of Technology to commemorate Voyager 2's encounter with Uranus. There, Dr. Michael Hoskin, a distinguished historian of science from Cambridge University, delivered the fol/owing talk in which he took on the persona of Sir William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus. AD[ES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE SEEN SEVERAL But Galileo had given me a clue: He suggested that, if [ near miracles performed in the last few hours, and could find a couple of stars almost exactly in the same line of L probably will see more tomorrow, but one miracle the sight, and if one of these stars was a very distant one, then organizers haven't been able to perform is to resurrect Sir that star might be a kind of fixed point, providentially provided William Herschel. They would very much have liked to invite by nature, against which [ would observe the apparent move­ him here today, but [ am here as the next best thing. [f you ment of the other, nearer star. So [ was looking for apparent will allow me, [ will stop speaking as myself and say what [ double stars - two stars so close together that, at first sight, think William Herschel might have said if he had lived long they appear to be one. That's why [ was looking at each star enough to be here: carefully to see if it were single or double. So when [ came to First, Mr. Moderator, [ would like to complain about the the Georgian Star, [ realized it was something special. name you are giving my planet. The Astronomer Royal invited Now you might wonder how [ came to be that evening in me, as the discoverer, to assign a name, and [ did so in honor this curious situation - a musician out studying stars one by of our sovereign king, George III. [ call it the Georgian Star just one. Well, [ was born in 1738 in Hanover and [ followed my as Galileo, long ago, called the moons of Jupiter the Medician father into the regimental band of the Hanoverian Guards. But Stars. [ hope that for the rest of this meeting, sir, the Georgian I'm afraid the Hanoverian Guards didn't do too well in the Star will be given its proper name. Seven Years' War. [ spent an uncomfortable evening in a ditch Now, you brought me here to tell you something about how [ alongside my father with cannonballs flying overhead. Dad discovered this planet. [ remember the evening vividly, though in said to me, "Why don't you get the hell out of this?" So [ did. many ways it was a routine day. I'd been teaching music to sev­ [ went to England to earn a living in music. [ hit the jackpot eral pupils; I'd put the finishing touches on a symphony and in in 1766 when [ became the organist at the Octagon Chapel in the evening [ went to the garden of my home in King Street in Bath. Bath was the Las Vegas of England in that day. This post Bath. [ got out the telescope I'd built a few years earlier. gave me a comfortable existence. After a few years [ wanted to The success of the evening came about because, if [ may enlarge my interests beyond music and [ began studying the modestly put it, sir, I'm the only person in history to have the mathematical theory of harmonics in the book by Professor three talents needed to make a truly universal astronomer: Robert Smith of Cambridge. This led me to Smith's Optics, First, at the time in question, one needed the skills of a telescope which told me how to build telescopes and what to see with maker to make a really excellent telescope for oneself.
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