The PLANETARY REPORT Volume XXIII Number 2 March/April 2003 View From Columbia Volume XXIII Table of Number 2 Contents March/April 2003 A PUBLICATION OF Features From How Will We Go? The Future of Human Spaceflight 4 We know human spaceflight will change in the wake of the Columbia tragedy. The How it will be affected and in what direction it will move will be determined in the weeks Editor and months ahead. The Planetary Society will participate in the discussions to come, and Executive Director Louis Friedman has already been considering the future. feel as if I’ve written this column 8 A Shuttle Mission Like No Other I before: in 1986, in the aftermath of The mission of Columbia was a special one for The Planetary Society. It carried the Challenger tragedy. Then, as now, we on board an astrobiology experiment we sponsored involving two young researchers: faced a critical examination of why human one a Palestinian biology student, the other an Israeli medical student. Amir Alexander, beings should explore space at all, and a Society web editor, was particularly close to this effort and tells its story here. why human life should be risked in any Stand By! We’re Landing on Titan endeavor with so intangible a return. 12 Chris McKay, a member of The Planetary Society’s Board of Directors, The official examination first will fo- spends most of his time studying organic chemicals and pondering the possibilities for cus on Columbia itself, next on the space life in our solar system. Saturn’s moon Titan would be an ideal laboratory for him, and shuttle program, and then expand, as if while he can’t go there himself, the Huygens probe carried by the Cassini spacecraft through concentric rings, to encompass should touch down on Titan early in 2005 and radio back enough data to keep him NASA itself. Beyond that, in the public busy for years. Chris gives us a preview of what to expect. arena, the space programs of all nations will be debated and reviewed. Things will change. A Special Note: You’ll find something new in this issue of The Planetary Report: How they change could largely be up advertising. To keep our organization healthy, we are adapting to the new economic to those of us who care deeply about this climate and expanding our sources of revenue. To keep our members happy, we will great endeavor of humanity. The name of limit the amount of ad space and only accept ads related to our mission. This will be a small change, but we hope it will make us more effective in maintaining our active our organization says what we are about. and influential organization and in advancing our shared goals. The planets are our destination, and we have always looked beyond low-Earth or- bit—that narrow circle to which the space shuttle is confined. Departments As a first step, as you’ll read in Lou 3 Members’ Dialogue Friedman’s article on page 4, the Society is organizing a top-level meeting of lead- 10 World Watch ers in the space community. We then will take the debate to the wider public. We 18 We Make It Happen! will be calling on our members to join to- 20 Questions and Answers gether and provide evidence that people want to explore space, to move beyond 22 Society News Earth orbit, and to reach that destination we long to attain. —Charlene M. Anderson Contact Us Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 On the Cover: E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://planetary.org In this cross section of the sky, a partial Moon hangs in the dark space above Earth’s horizon and airglow. A digital still The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published bimonthly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106- 2301, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US are $30 (US dollars); in Canada, $40 (Canadian dollars). camera on board the space shuttle Columbia captured this Dues in other countries are $45 (US dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. oblique view on January 26, 2003. The image, as well as Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, AMY SPITALNICK other pictures from Columbia in this issue, was transmitted Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH to Earth during the mission. Image: NASA Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Science Editor, BRUCE BETTS Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, or advisers. ©2003 by The Planetary Society. Cofounder CARL SAGAN 1934–1996 Board of Directors Members’ Chairman of the Board BRUCE MURRAY Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, Dialogue California Institute of Technology President WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington Vice President NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History Executive Director On Columbia’s Loss aware of their roles as educa- NASA’s outdated, obsolete LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN ANN DRUYAN One hundred years from now, tors, mentors, and sources of fleet is getting costly to main- author and producer humans will view space disas- inspiration as people of great tain and control. It’s time for JOHN M. LOGSDON Director, Space Policy Institute, ters and loss of life as historic courage and commitment. It is us to push seriously for more George Washington University Advisory Council Chair incidents that paved the way in this latter role that we shall modernized spacecraft for CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY planetary scientist, for explorations of that era. most remember them. both human and nonhuman NASA Ames Research Center BILL NYE One thousand years from —ALAN PRITCHARD, spaceflight needs, instead of science educator now, human expeditions to Stockholm, Sweden relying on outdated stuff from JOSEPH RYAN Executive Vice President and Mars will be fairly routine and the ’70s. General Counsel, Marriott International ROALD Z. SAGDEEV serve as stepping stones to As we mourn the Columbia ac- —BRIAN HART, former Director, Institute for Space Research, exploring interstellar planets. cident, we must resolve not to Irvine, California Russian Academy of Sciences STEVEN SPIELBERG Hundreds of centuries from lose sight of the future. While director and producer MARIA T. ZUBER now, human space colonies the past glories of NASA— The loss of the Columbia is a Professor will proliferate throughout our the landing of humans on the terrible tragedy, and the space Massachusetts Institute of Technology galaxy and beyond. Moon, and a blank check to community should spare no Advisory Council JIHEI AKITA While we all mourn the loss do the job—are a thing of the effort to investigate its causes Executive Director, of human life in our quest for past, the current nickel-and- and make sure that nothing The Planetary Society, Japan BUZZ ALDRIN space colonization, it is logical dime approach to NASA’s similar happens again. Never- Apollo 11 astronaut RICHARD BERENDZEN to accept the fact that future budget and space exploration theless, spaceflight is an in- educator and astrophysicist JACQUES BLAMONT tragedies are inevitable. must be considered. herently risky business, and Chief Scientist, Out of 113 shuttle flights, “To boldly go where no one all involved are well aware Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France RAY BRADBURY only 2 have been catastrophic. has gone before” never has of the dangers to crew and poet and author DAVID BRIN This represents a success rate come cheap, and we are once equipment. author of 98 percent. In my view, again reminded of the human In the same way as planes FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ NASA, Astronaut Office given the incredible complex- capital expended in this endeav- are not grounded, or cars left ARTHUR C. CLARKE ities of human spacecraft, this or. While anemic funding may in parking lots after air or road author FRANK DRAKE is a reasonably acceptable risk not be a direct cause of this disasters, the space program President, SETI Institute; Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, factor. event, it cannot be completely should not be put on hold University of California, Santa Cruz GARRY E. HUNT —BARRY ROWE, excused from responsibility. indefinitely because of this space scientist, United Kingdom SERGEI KAPITSA Melbourne, Florida We have come to the point tragedy. Instead, we should Institute for Physical Problems, not only of shortchanging fu- renew our efforts to produce Russian Academy of Sciences CHARLES E. KOHLHASE JR. I am deeply shocked and sad- ture generations but also of better and safer vehicles, along mission designer, author, digital artist JON LOMBERG dened by the loss of Columbia. failing to honor generations with more space exploration, artist The initiative taken in sponsor- of the past. If we wish to manned or unmanned. HANS MARK University of Texas at Austin ing the GOBBSS (for Growth memorialize and pay tribute That would be the best trib- YASUNORI MATOGAWA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, of Bacterial Biofilms on Inor- to those who have given their ute to Columbia’s crew, as well Japan ganic Surfaces During Space- lives on Columbia in pursuit of as to the crew of the Challenger. JOHN MINOGUE President, DePaul University flight) experiment (see page 8) the future, let that monument Spaceflight is one of the great- PHILIP MORRISON Institute Professor, was a small but important action be a living one, one embodied est adventures of humankind.