-1 A Publication 01 THEPLANE~ SOCIETV o o o o o • 0-e Board of Directors CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY President Vice President Director. Laboratory tor Planetary Professor of Planetary Studies, Cornefl University Science. California Institute of Technology LOUIS FRIEDMAN Executive Director HENRY TANNER California Institute THOMAS O. PAINE of Technology Former Administrator. NASA Chairman, National ' JOSEPH RYAN Commission on Space O'Melveny & Myers Board of Advisors DIANE ACKERMAN JOHN M. LOGSDON poet and author Director. Space Policy Institute George Washington University ISAAC ASIMOV author HANS MARK Chancellor, or five days, August 23 to 27, as most popular feature was the Planetary RICHARD BERENDZEN University of Texas System President, American University Fthe Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Society store, which offered everything JAMES MICHENER JACOUES BLAMONT author steered Voyager 2 past Neptune and The from glitter pencils to T-shirts to space­ Scientific Consultant, Centre National d'Eludes Spatiales. MARVIN MINSKY Planetary Society hosted Planetfest '89, craft models. Artist Kim Poor set up his France Donner Professor of Science. Massachusetts Institute Pasadena became the center of the solar Novagraphics art gallery where people RAY BRADBURY of Technology poet and author PHI LIP MORRISON system. At least that's how it seemed to could watch space artists creating images ARTHUR C. CLARKE Institute Professor. Massachusetts Society staff and volunteers, who worked and buy copies of their work. author Institute of Technology CORNELIS DE JAGER PAUL NEWMAN long and hard to make the Pasadena Plan­ JPL set up informative displays on their Professor of Space Research. actor The Astronomical Institute at etary Festival happen. From the opening upcoming missions and posted the latest Utrecht, The Netherlands BE RNARD M. OLIVER Chief, SET! Program, symposium on Wednesday to the "wrap released images from Voyager for close-up FRANK DRAKE NASNAmes Research Center Profe!>sor of Astronomy and party" on Sunday night, we worked, fret­ viewing. Several aerospace companies Astrophysics. University of SALLY RIDE California at Santa Cruz Director, California Space Institule, ted, partied and-with over 15,000 Planet­ brought exhibits of their latest projects, University of California, San Diego LEE A. DUBRIDGE fest guests--celebrated the completion of and the World Space Foundation hung a former presidential ROALD Z. SAGDEEV science advisor Institute for Space Research, Voyager 2's Grand Tour of the solar system. solar sail from the ceiling of the confer­ Academy of Sciences JOHN GARDNER olthe USSR The centerpiece of Planetfest '89 was ence center. founder. Common Cause HARRISON H, SCHMITT the "videowall": 16 high-resolution color Planetfest '89 was all this and much THEODORE M. HESBURGH former US Senator; NM President Emeritus. and former astronaut monitors linked together by computer to more, as you'll read on the following University of Notre Dame LEWIS THOMAS form one giant screen. There we broadcast pages. Planning Planetfest took a year and SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER Chancellor. Memorial Sloan educator and jurist Kettering Cancer Center "Voyager Watch," featuring live images of a half. It all began under the direction of GARRY E. HUNT JAMES VAN ALLEN Neptune, its rings and moons as they were film producer Claire Townsend, who laid space scientist, Professor of Physics. United Kingdom University of Iowa received at JPL. Nearly 5,000 people the foundation. When Claire left to begin joined us on Thursday, the night of closest law school, I took over as Director, and approach, and many hundreds spent the while I can't claim to have enjoyed every The Planetary Re{XJft (ISSN 0736-3680) is published six times yearly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society. 65 North Catalina Avenue, entire night at the videowall, participating minute, Planetfest '89 certainly is some­ Pasadena, CA 91106, (818) 793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues are $20 in the US, $25 in Canada, and in Voyager 2's historic last encounter. thing I'll never forget. $30 outside the US or Canada. The daily press briefings at JPL were I wish I could personally thank every­ Edito, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE also piped into the videowall so that one who helped make Planetfest '89 possi­ Assista nt Editor; DONNA STEVENS Copy Editor. KARL STULL Planetfest attendees could hear the latest ble, but that would probably take the entire Editorial Assistant. DEIRDRE VON DORNUM Art Directo, BARBARA SMITH discoveries and analysis as they were an­ Planetary Report. People literally came nounced. During periods when the space­ from around the world- from Norway and Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions 01 The Planetary Society, its officers craft was performing experiments rather Australia, for example-to experience the or advisors. © 1989 by The Planetary Society. In Canada, Second Class Mail Registratoo Number 9567 than transmitting images, the video wall encounter and Planetfest, and we thank all played "The Best of Voyager," a specially of them for coming. prepared videotape of spacecraft images Will we do it again? I hope so, but not COVER: During early August 1989, the Great and computer graphics recapitulating the before we recover from this one! The Dark Spot of Neptune became a familiar sight many surprises and achievements of the Planetary Society will hold major public worldwide. ,Then, as Voyager 2 flew through the neptunian system, unexpected images mission. With live images, press an­ events at upcoming planetary encounters came fast and furious, including the highway­ nouncements and thrilling graphics, the -for example, when Magellan reaches like features on Triton, its bright south pole videowall set a quick pace for other Plan­ Venus next August-and no doubt some­ and possible volcanic features, and complete etfest activities. time we'll do a full-blown Planetfest rings around the planet. After the encounter, The Planetary Society threw a party for In organizing Planetfest we wanted to again. Keep reading The Planetary Voyager, and Chuck Berry serenaded the make sure that when people were ready to Report and watch for announcements of spacecraft on its way out of our solar system. take a break from the videowall, there Society activities. I hope to see you there. Photographs: JPUNASA, J. R. Rost and Dan MacMedan were plenty of things to see and do. The -Angela Brown, Planetfest '89 Director PLANETS AND POLITICS REFLECTIONS ON THE PRESIDENTIAL MOON-MARS INITIATIVE BY CARL SAGAN illl! IIUiiiiililii In his capacity as Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Planetary Society President Carl Sagan recently shared his views of President George Bush's new space policy with JPL scientists, engineers and administrators. This article comprises brief excerpts from his talk. The full text of Sagan's address is now available as a pamphlet published by The Planetary Society. With "Planets and Politics" we are inaugurating a new pamphlet series to provide our members with in-depth background on space policy, history and scientific discovery. If you would like a copy of the pamphlet, please send $3.00 to: Pamphlets, The Planetary Society, 65 N. Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106. n July 20, 1989, in his speech mark­ lunar "base" means a large permanently humans landing on the planet Mars. Oing the 20th anniversary of the occupied facility. An outpost is unlikely Environmental issues are becoming Apollo 11 landing, President George to distract us from the main objective. A politically important worldwide. Any Bush gave the first authoritative re­ base may be a dead end. NASA Associ­ politician skeptical about the reality of sponse to President Mikhail Gor­ ate Administrator Frank Martin has the greenhouse effect on Earth can pro­ bachev's proposal that Americans and imagined an exercise in which you go to ductively contemplate the greenhouse Soviets go together to Mars. There he the space station for a year, then go effect on Venus. Early studies of ozono­ talked about manned missions to Mars down to the lunar outpost for a month, sphere depletion by chlorofluorocarbons and about going back to the Moon, "to and then back to the space station for a were based on research on Venus ' atmo­ stay." I applaud that speech as far as it year-in this way modeling the Earth­ sphere. The antiseptic martian surface is went. It had some omissions and defi­ Mars transit, the Mars surface excur­ what happens when your ozone goes ciencies- some of which perhaps are a sion, and then the Mars-Earth return. away. Nuclear winter was discovered by matter of perceived political necessity. Martin stressed that during this period it planetary scientists who worked on mar­ Some of the omissions: There was no would be essential to keep the Mars goal tian dust storms. Additional unexpected mention of robotic precursor missions constantly before the public. environmental dangers may be discov­ to Mars or to the Moon or to anywhere How do you keep that Mars goal con­ ered by studies of other planets. NASA else. I think that is simply a detail. Pres­ stantly before the public while you have could do a much better job in justifying ident Kennedy's May 1961, "We're go­ astronauts on the Moon? You go to planetary exploration by stressing its ing to the Moon," speech didn't men­ Mars with robots. There's a succession role in protecting our small world. tion Rangers , Lunar Orbiters or of missions. Not just rovers and sample NASA must embrace another con­ Surveyors. We are not going to set peo­ returns but penetrators and balloons and stituency if the grand long-term initia­ ple down on Mars without much more orbiters-a wide range of fully justified tive to send people to Mars is to become robotic exploration of the planet-for missions to Mars and elsewhere.