The PLANETARY REPOR T Volume XXXI Number 1 January/February 2011 Mapping Pluto From The Editor arl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Lou On the Cover CFriedman may have founded the Planetary Society, but it did not spring Pluto is not just a puny ball of ice and rock with a crazy fullly grown from their heads. They orbit on the fringes of our solar system; it is a dynamic had the help of some extraordinary world undergoing dramatic surface and atmospheric people who knew how to build “con - changes. These recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) stituency groups,” and through their maps of Pluto, shown in a rotational order spaced 40 wisdom, this organization was born. degrees of longitude apart, reveal marked differences Two people in particular shaped what from observations made in the early 1990s, when HST became the prime benefit of member - was new on the job. These invaluable maps will help ship, The Planetary Report : Peter Tagger scientists not only in interpreting more than 30 years and Harry Ashmore. of Pluto observations from other telescopes but also Peter set up the membership side in picking out the best features on which to train New of operations and was the greatest Horizons ’ cameras when it flies by the dwarf planet (and most patient) teacher I have ever in 2015. Images: M. Buie/NASA/STScI/HST known. Harry was a Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist and an avuncular Background guide to non-profit publishing. They The lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010 (Eastern Stan - helped in many ways, but one contri - dard Time) coincided, for the first time since 1638, with bution was their most lasting: they the northern winter solstice. In North America, those insisted that we hire Barbara Smith lucky enough to have clear skies enjoyed the show high to design The Planetary Report . in the winter sky. The coppery red glow of the Moon is It's a good thing they insisted. the result of light from all the sunrises and sunsets of Under Barbara's artistic hand , The Earth, all at once. This image is a digital composite— Planetary Report became one of the star field surrounding the Moon is a separate image the most distinctive—and just plain with a longer exposure. Image: Chris Hetlage lovely—magazines covering space exploration. After 30 years of working with our wild bunch, Barbara has decided it’s time to tackle new challenges. As this issue goes to press, she is retiring as art director. We are going to miss her immensely. Intelligent, wise-cracking, imaginative, and talented, she has brought passion and flare to what could have been just another membership- benefit magazine. So, Barbara, I'm going to miss you. Planetary Society members are going to miss your work. We could never have come so far without you. Thank you! (And Peter and Harry, wherever you are, thank you for insisting.) —Charlene M. Anderson Contact Us Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 85 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105-1602 General Calls: 626-793-5100 E-mail: tps@ planetary.org Internet: planetary.or g 2 THE PLANETARY REPORT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Cofounder CARL SAGAN 1934–1996 Board of Directors Chairman of the Board DAN GERACI CEO, IronAge Consulting Corp. President JIM BELL Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University Vice President HEIDI HAMMEL Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director, Contents Research, Space Science Institute Executive Director BILL NYE science educator ANN DRUYAN 4 Snapshots From Space: Chief Executive Officer, Cosmos Studios The Giant’s Baleful Eye LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN Cofounder G. SCOTT HUBBARD by Emily Stewart Lakdawalla professor, Stanford University WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director Emeritus, Geophysical Laboratory, 5 Your Place in Space: Carnegie Institution of Washington LON LEVIN SkySevenVentures Here and Now: Our Unique ALEXIS LIVANOS Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Perspective Northrop Grumman JOHN LOGSDON Professor Emeritus, Space Policy Institute, by Bill Nye The George Washington University Advisory Council Chair CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY planetary scientist 6 Zooming In on Pluto: BRUCE MURRAY Cofounder Using the Hubble Space Telescope ELON MUSK Chairman and CEO, SpaceX JOSEPH RYAN to Map a Faraway World Ryan Investments, LLP BIJAL “BEE” THAKORE by Marc W. Buie Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, Space Generation Advisory Council NEIL deGRASSE TYSON Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, 12 Change Comes from Within American Museum of Natural History by Jim Bell International Council ROGER-MAURICE BONNET Executive Director, International Space Science Institute 15 LightSail Update: YASUNORI MATOGAWA Associate Executive Director, Testing, Learning, and Waiting Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency MAMORU MOHRI Director, National Museum by Louis D. Friedman of Emerging Science and Innovation RISTO PELLINEN Director of Science in Space Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute 18 We Make It Happen! Advisory Council Fun With Microrovers BUZZ ALDRIN RICHARD BERENDZEN by Bruce Betts JACQUES BLAMONT RAY BRADBURY ROBERT D. BRAUN DAVID BRIN 14 World Watch JAMES CANTRELL FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ FRANK DRAKE 16 Questions and Answers OWEN GARRIOTT GARRY E. HUNT 22 Society News BRUCE JAKOSKY THOMAS D. JONES 23 Members’ Dialogue SERGEI KAPITSA CHARLES E. KOHLHASE JR. LAURIE LESHIN JOHN M. LOGSDON JON LOMBERG ROSALY LOPES HANS MARK JOHN MINOGUE The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published bimonthly at the editorial offices of the Planetary ROBERT PICARDO Society, 85 Sou th Grand Avenue, Pasadena CA 91105-1602, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of the Planetary Society. Annual dues in the United States are $37 (U.S. dollars); in Canada, $40 JOHN RHYS-DAVIES (Canadian dollars). Dues in other countries are $57 (U.S. dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage KIM STANLEY ROBINSON at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. DONNA L. SHIRLEY Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, A. J. SOBCZAK Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOI S SMITH KEVIN STUBE Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S . SMITH Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Science Editor, BRUCE BETTS A Viewpoints expressed in columns and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily repre - PUBLICATION sent positions of the Planetary Societ y, its officers, or its advis ers. ©2011 by the Planetary Society. 3 OF THE PLANETARY REPORT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Snapshots from SPACE The Giant’s Baleful Eye by Emily Stewart Lakdawalla Whorls upon whorls of turbulent, stormy atmosphere curl around the Great Red Spot in a view composed of 24 separate images from Voyager 1 . The photos, taken on March 4, 1979, have been here on Earth for more than 30 years, but computing power in 1979 was insuffi - cient to process the data into such a spectacular, seamless mosaic, and it has never before Explore MORE been published in its entirety. This view was composed in 2010 by amateur image processor Björn Jónsson, who said, • You can learn more about this image at “This is the highest resolution color mosaic completely covering the Great Red Spot that I planetary.org/snapshots . have ever seen. I feel like I’m processing stuff from a new planetary encounter when I see • A poster print of this image is available at thi s.” He has since produced another mosaic, taken four months later by Voyager 2 , showing the Red Spot in even greater detail. cafepress.com/planetaryshop . The Great Red Spot is, of course, still swirling on Jupiter, three decades after the Voyagers • Discover more about amateur image passed by, but the white spot below and to its right is gone, having merged with two others processing and learn how to get involved at to form Oval BA, also known as “Red Spot Junior.” planetary.org/programs/projects/amateur/. • Get your daily dose of space news, fascinat - Emily Stewart Lakdawalla is science and technology coordinator for the Planetary Society ing pictures, and commentary at the Planetary and writes for the Society’s blog at planetary.org/blog . Society’s blog at planetary.org/blog. 4 THE PLANETARY REPORT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Your Place IN SPACE Here and Now: Our Unique Perspective “Do you realize by Bill Nye what’s going on up there and all around ike many animals, I us?” Perhaps our an - L find myself drawn to cestors felt the same shiny objects, especially way—wanting to grab ones that move and fly. their contemporaries Near the end of a recent by the bearskin sin - workday, all of us on the glet. Do you see how office staff left our desks astonishing it all is— and stood outside to ob - how wonderful are the serve the flight of the workings of the cos - International Space Station mos? Of course, one (ISS). It went right over us. must also accept that At dusk on a clear evening, those enlightened few it is a very bright thing probably were out - to see. casts. The history of The ISS is a human- planetary discovery This bright thread of light is a long-exposure view of the International Space made assembly. From Station gliding through the twilight above Altadena, California on July 14, 2010. reminds us how long the ground, with unaided We fellow space explorers are lucky to live in a time when this visitor to our it took for people eyes, the details of its con - evening skies is a familiar—though always special—sight. Photo: Bill Westphal everywhere to accept struction are not apparent. our modern under - A few of our fellow citizens are on board, but somehow standing of worlds in space. that wasn’t the point of watching it. The point was that it As frustrating as it may be to reflect on the many cen - was moving— unfettered by wind, unconcerned with night - turies that must have passed between one of us realizing fall, and oblivious to us.