David Grinspoon Planetary Science Institute 2016 Report

Report on research and education activities:

My research activities in 2016 included contributing to the Japanese Akatsuki Venus mission as a Contributing Scientist. Several papers are in preparation, but none have been published yet. Also this year I continued work on the ROCKE3D node of the NASA NexSS (NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science). Out of this work I am co-author of a paper that was published in Geophysics Research Letters entitled “Was Venus the First Habitable World of Our Solar System. I also contributed as Co-I to the proposal for the Venus entry probe discovery mission DAVINCI which was selected for Phase A funding, including participating in the site visit at Lockheed Martin in Denver, but this mission was not selected in the recent competition. On the heels of this loss I am now a Co-I on two teams that are submitting New Frontiers proposal for the upcoming competition. I gave invited talks at Princeton University, the University of Colorado, the Smithsonian American Museum of Natural History, the University of Berne and the Library of Congress, and an invited Pardee Symposium keynote talk at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver.

I have participated in numerous public outreach activities including magazine writing, hosting and appearing as a guest on radio shows, moderating public discussions, giving lectures and performing planetarium shows.

I also joined the scientific advisory board of the SETI Institute.

Publications:

Way, M. J., A. D. Del Genio, N. Y. Kiang, L. E. Sohl, D. H. Grinspoon, I. Aleinov, M. Kelley, and T. Clune (2016), Was Venus the first habitable world of our solar system?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, doi:10.1002/2016GL069790.

Grinspoon, D.H, (2016) Pluto and the Human Imagination. Abstract for Invited Keynote talk at the Pardee Symposium, Geological Society of America meeting Denver, 2016.

Grinspoon, D.H, (2016) Planetary Intelligence. Abstract for Invited Union Session talk at the American Geophysical Union Meeting, San Francisco, 2016.

Colloquia and Invited Conference Talks:

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) The Once and Future Exploration of Venus. Invited Colloquium at the University of Berne, June 1, 2016.

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) Astrobiology and Planetary Exploration. Invited Colloquium at Princeton University, September 19, 2016

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) Astrobiology and Planetary Exploration. Invited Colloquium at Princeton University, September 19, 2016

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) The Emergence of Life Beyond Earth. Invited talk at “Emergencd of Life” Symposium at Library of Congress, September 14, 2016.

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) Pluto and the Human Imagination. Invited Keynote talk at the Pardee Symposium, Geological Society of America Meeting, Denver.

Grinspoon, D.H. (2016) Planetary Intelligence. Invited Union Session talk at the AGU Meeting San Francisco.

Popular Articles:

Grinspoon, D. (2016). Thank our Lucky Planets: How Planets Really do Shape our Fate, Sky and Telescope, November 2016,

Grinspoon, D. (2016). Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter: Ten Years Over Mars, Sky and Telescope, August 2016,

Grinspoon, D., M. Rees, N. Beckstead, D. Waltham, S. Shostak, and D.D. Sasselov. (2015) "The universe is ours." New Scientist, 5-5.

Grinspoon, D. (2016). The Golden Spike of Tranquility Base, Sky and Telescope, June, 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016). The International Space Station: Our Year in Space, Sky and Telescope, May, 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016). Could it be? Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Intelligence? Sky and Telescope, February, 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016) We’re at the Controls on Planet Earth but We’re not In Control. The Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016) Welcome to the Sapeizoic. Aeon, Dec. 20, 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016) Why Most Planets will be either Lush or Dead. Nautilus, Dec. 2016

Grinspoon, D. (2016) The Romantic Venus we Never Knew. Nautilus, Dec. 8. 2016.

Grinspoon, D. (2016) There’s No Future in Despising Humanity, Slate, Dec. 26, 2016.

Service to the Science Community:

Senior Advisory Board of the International Association for Geoethics.

Associate Academic Member of the Big History Institute at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Scientific Advisory Board for the SETI Institute.

I served on several NASA review panels.

Public Outreach Activities:

I am a host of a new web radio show entitled Star Talk All Stars, which is a spin-off of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Star Talk, to be produced by the same team. Several episodes were recorded and broadcast in 2016.

Multiple Interviews on the John Batchelor Show, syndicated radio show, giving updates on planetary exploration and astrobiology.

Interviewed by several NPR public radio stations in Washington DC, California, Boston and New York.

Appearance on television show How the Universe Works.

Appearance on Star Talk National Geographic television show.

Talk at “All Space Considered” public event at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

Public talks at University of Berne, Arizona State University, Library of Congress, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, California Academy of Sciences, and several other venues.