On the Cover: Volume XIX Mars Global Surveyor has finally begun its mission to map the Table of surface of Mars in unprecedented detail. Equipment problems Number 3 delayed the mapping mission for many months, as' the space­ May/June 1999 craft settled into a nea r-circular orbit. But by March 1999 the Contents spacecraft was returning spectacular images. Here we see a field of dark sand dunes in the Nili Patera regio n of Syrtis Major, a dark triangular area that has been observed from Earth for many decades. In this image, the spacecraft has resolved details as small as 3 meters across. The shapes of the dunes indicate Features that dark sand has been steadily blown from upper right to lower left by the Martian wind . Th e area shown is 2.1 kilometers 4 Beginnings of Galactic Exploration/Some (1.3 miles) across. Thoughts on SETI Image: MSSS/NASA Of all Planetary Society programs, none generates more passion than SET!. We began nearly two decades ago with Suitcase SET!, a signal analyzer that could travel from telescope to telescope. Now we're working with several partners on SET!@home, making it possible for anyone with a computer to join the search. SET! fascinates in many ways, as you'll find in Froln short essays by Philip Morrison and Christopher Chyba. The 7 An Ocean in Callisto? After the success of Gali/eo 's magnetometer experiment in investigating the possible Editor ocean on Europa, scientists decided to take a closer look at magnetometer and gravity data from another Jovian moon. The surprising results from Callisto, reported for us by David J. Stevenson, suggest there is a layer of liquid water trapped within this perplexing world of ice. OU can't blame the space program for Y the Internet. The enabling technologies 12 Mars Global Surveyor: A Close Eye on Mars forboth grew out of military research and The journey of Mars Global Surveyor has been long and difficult (for details, see development during the Cold War. Regard­ the March!April 1998 Planetary Report), but the new images have proved well worth the less of its origins, the Internet, like the Space wait, providing data for the most detailed map yet of the world next door. Someday, human Age, has changed the way we live and do explorers may walk upon Mars, following maps based on images that we present here and business. in issues to come. In the publications business, we are riding a wave of transformation. The old craft of 14 Whatever Happened to Planet X? putting ink to paper is being superseded by John Anderson, writing in the July/August 1988 Planetary Report, considered the the technology of arranging electrons on a possibility of a 10th planet in our solar system and a strategy for using the Pioneer space­ mineral. How to change the way we bring craft to detect it. Much has happened since then, including verification that trans-Plutonian information to Planetary Society members space contains many small bodies and a discovery as yet unexplained-the Pioneers are has become a constant theme among staff slowing down. members. We need a plan. And to do our job right, we need to know what our members want. Departlnents So I'm using this editorial space to ask you 3 Members' Dialogue a favor: let us know in what sorts of ways you would like us to communicate with you. 18 NelNs and RevielNs Do you regularly visit our World Wide Web site to supplement the information you 19 World Watch receive in The Planetary Report? Would you like to receive regular updates via e-mail? 20 Questions and AnslNers Do you still find publications such as our 22 Society NelNs special-interest newsletters useful? Or would you rather we devoted more energy and resources to electronic publishing? We won't eliminate paper publications­ Contact Us . at least not on my watch. But we do need to make the best use of the media available Mailing Address: The Planetary SOCiety, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 'to us. Let us hear from you. General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 - Charlene M. Anderson E-mail: [email protected] rY.org World Wide Web: http://planetary.org The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is publis.hed bi.monthly at the editorial offices of the Plan'!'tary Soc iety, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91 106-2301, 626-793-5100. It IS ava il able to members of the Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US are $25 (US dollars); in Canada, $35 (Canadian doll ars). Dues in other countries are $40 (US doll ars). Printed in USA. Thi rd-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Technical Editor, JAMES O. BURKE .~-~ Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Copy Editor. KARL STULL THEPL.AN;T~, SOCIETY Assistant Editor. JENNIFER VAUGHN Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Production Editor, WI LLIAM MCGOVERN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH . +~--e- <!> -e- • in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of the Planetary Society, ©1999 by the Planetary Society o Co-founder CARL SAGAN Members' 1934-1996 Board of Di~ectors BRUCE MURRAY Dialogue President Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, California Institute of Techn%gy LAUREL L. WILKENING Vice President Chancellor, University of California, Irvine LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN Executive Director NORMAN R. AUGUSTINE Chairman and CEO, Lockheed Mat11n Corporation ANN ORUYAN ·.Ices.. Was Cool interest in the John Glenn mission Get Real author and producer DONALD J. KUTYNA '''Ices' Throughout the Solar has shown us that the American I've been a member of the Plane­ former Commander, US Space Command System: A Tour of Condensable public is longing for new heroes. tary Society since the beginning JOSEPH RYAN Executive Vice President and Species" [see MarchiApril 1999] Everyone's heard about how and I love it. But one thing has General Counsel, Marriott International ROALD Z. SAGDEEV was a great article! I have always miserable United States students me wondering: you "serious" former Director, Institute for Space Research, wondered what exactly scientists are in math and science compared scientists talk blithely about Russian Academy of Sciences STEVEN SPIELBERG were talking about when they to students in other industrialized settlements and colonies on the director and producer KATHRYN O. SULLIVAN mentioned the different composi­ nations. I think I speak for all chil­ Moon and Mars and about "con­ President and CEO, Ohio's Center of Science and Industry tions that make up the "ices" on dren when I say we learn better trolled environments" needed and former astronaut NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON various planets and moons. I had when we're inspired with a chance for these settlements as though Drrector, Hayden Planetarium, no idea that Ganymede might for greatness rather than when they already exist. But they don't. American Museum of Natura! History have frozen oxygen, and Wendy we're taught down to and threat­ When you had an opportunity Advisory Council to "rehearse" with a controlled JOHN M. LOGSDON Calvin's explanation for it was ened with failure. Chairman Director, Space Policy Institute, very educating indeed. The goal of human colonization environment [Biosphere II] a few George Wasllingtan University Especially helpful was the table of Mars will give America some­ years ago near Tucson, Arizona, DIANE ACKERMAN very little interest was shown. It poet and author showing what frozen compounds thing to dream of again. Lesser JIHEI AKITA and elements are found on the goals, like building space stations was well funded and well inten­ Executive Director, The Planetary SOCiety, Japan BUZZ ALDRIN different bodies in the solar sys­ and robotic space missions, just tioned, but most of the people Apollo 11 astronaut tem. It puts into perspective how don't fire the imagination and participating were amateurs, RICHARD BERENOZEN educator and astrophysicist diverse our solar system is. I leave us burning with excitement. and it was a failure. Didn't that JACQUES BLAMONT Gflief Scientist, really appreciate the articles that We need something outside of set off any warning bells in the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France take the time to explain things ourselves, bigger and better than scientific community? The RAY BRADBURY poet and author that nonscientists might not know all of us, to urge us to our limits. things that went wrong were DAVID BRIN or understand. We need a shared dream- the devastating, but on the Moon author FRANKLIN CHANG-OIAZ - MICHAEL MATKIN, human colonization of Mars. or Mars they would be fatal. NASA, Astronaut Office ARTHUR C. CLARKE Mesa, Arizona - ANNlKA FITZPATRICK (age And the relationships between author 10), Lake Worth, Texas the humans involved-pathetic, FRANK DRAKE President, SET/Institute; HUnians to Mars but typical. Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz I am a young person who is deter­ I must disagree with James It seems to me that biosphere STEPHEN JAY GOULD Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, mined to live and work on Mars. Boshnack's letter in the living should be your number one Harvard University You may be familiar with these January/February 1999 issue priority. Has anyone actually GARRY E. HUNT space scientist, United Kingdom words by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, advocating returning humans to extracted water and oxygen from WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director, GeophYSical Laboratory, which have been a focus in my the Moon in force but putting off rocks (especially on a grand scale), Carnegie Institution of Washington inspiration to establish human col­ human expeditions to Mars until recycled urine into safe drinking SERGEI KAPITSA Institute for Physical Problems, onization of other planets: "Earth some distant date when technolo­ water, and tried to keep people in Russian Academy of Sciences • CHARLES KOHLHASE is the cradle of the mind, but one gy has advanced far beyond our a bubble for years without them mission designer, author, digital artist cannot live in the cradle forever." current capabilities.