The PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXI Number 2 March/April 2001 Farewell, Mir Inside— The Planetary Society’s Cosmos 1: The First Solar Sail On the Cover: Volume XXI When Mir launched in February 1986, it was a show- Table of Number 2 case of Russian technology. But after 15 years of hard work, the aged space station has ended its run. Contents March/April 2001 This view of Mir over Earth’s blue skies was imaged during a fly-around by the space shuttle Atlantis follow- ing the joint docking activities between the two crews. Image: JSC/NASA Features Farewell to a Cold Warrior: Mir Station Obituary 4 As head of the Space Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Roald Sagdeev was there at the birth of the Mir space station. As an adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he watched Mir’s changing role in international space policy. Then, after marrying From Susan Eisenhower, the American president’s granddaughter, he moved to the United States The and saw Mir from a different perspective. A member of The Planetary Society’s Board of Editor Directors, he shares with Society members his memories of the long-lived space station. 8 A Bold New Voyage: he Planetary Society is preparing to The Planetary Society Prepares to Fly a Solar Sail It’s the first time a membership organization has undertaken an actual space mission, and launch its first space mission: the T only The Planetary Society is audacious enough to do it. This is the story of how we plan to Cosmos 1 solar sail. For years we’ve been launch the first solar sail, what it will mean to the future of space exploration, and how you hearing from our members that what you’d helped make it happen. really like the Society to do is to fly our own spacecraft mission. And so that’s what we’re The 2001 Shoemaker NEO Grant Awardees: going to do. 15 A World of Observing Experience A remarkable confluence of people and The Planetary Society’s Gene Shoemaker NEO (Near-Earth Object) Grant program may events is making this mission possible. The not be as high-profile a project as either our SETI or Mars efforts, but it has the potential to Russians we’ve worked with for 15 years on be one of our most significant. Since 1980, when Luis and Walter Alvarez and colleagues our Mars Balloon, Rover, and Microphone startled the world with their discovery that an asteroid impact had wiped out the dinosaurs, projects saw applications for solar sails in the small rocky and icy bodies that swing by our planet have been shown increased respect. the inflatable spacecraft technologies being The Planetary Society grants, whose winners are announced here, may prove crucial in developed in their now-scaled-back space someday avoiding a catastrophe for us or our descendants. program. They brought their ideas to us. Meanwhile our cofounder Carl Sagan’s 18 Odd Planet Out: What’s Up With Pluto Exploration? wife and collaborator, Ann Druyan, was Just as I was writing this Table of Contents, the Bush Administration released its fiscal year 2002 budget. The apparent lack of funds for the Pluto mission prompted NASA to starting a science media and entertainment ask Congress for permission to cancel the Pluto mission, but Congress refused to halt the com- company, Cosmos Studios, with Internet en- petition among mission proposals. Now the budget goes to Congress for deliberation, and the trepreneur Joe Firmage. Seeing the solar mission’s fate will be decided there. In this article you’ll read details of The Planetary Society’s sail as a perfect fit with their projects, they campaign to save the mission. Check our website, planetary.org, for updates. enthusiastically agreed to sponsor it. Planetary Society members have stead- fastly supported our efforts to develop inno- Departments vative technologies that can be leveraged Members’ Dialogue into major advances in planetary exploration. 3 We found a project of such great potential, 20 Questions and Answers and such manageable cost, that we could do it ourselves. We will do what our members 22 Society News really want us to do: fly our own mission. So this fall, as you look up and watch our solar sail tack across the sky, you’ll know that you and your fellow members made it Contact Us happen. Be proud. —Charlene M. Anderson Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://planetary.org 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 $25 (US dollars); in Canada, $35 (Canadian dollars). Dues in other countries are $40 (US dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, AMY SPITALNICK Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, or advisors. ©2001 by The Planetary Society. Co-founder Members’ CARL SAGAN Dialogue 1934–1996 Board of Directors President BRUCE MURRAY Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, Robert Zubrin There is also little doubt that sizable Shaping Young California Institute of Technology Vice President WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Responds fractions of the ejected putative bacteria Minds Director, Geophysical Laboratory, The November/December 2000 issue could survive the interplanetary transfer I want you to know about the Carnegie Institution of Washington Executive Director of The Planetary Report contained as well as reentry at Earth. (See “Life contribution you are making to the LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN ANN DRUYAN articles by three members of the “plan- From Space” by Benjamin Weiss and education of my middle school stu- author and producer etary protection” community who were Joseph Kirschvink, The Planetary Re- dents. I teach science at William DONALD J. KUTYNA former Commander, apparently very upset by my article i port, November/December 2000, and Cowper Intermediate School and US Space Command Advisory Council Chair n the July/August 2000 issue dis- “Natural Transfer of Viable Microbes conduct an Astronomy Club there JOHN M. LOGSDON Director, Space Policy Institute, paraging the putative threat of back in Space” by Curt Mileikowsky et al, for the kids. We get a sizable George Washington University CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY contamination from Mars. (See “No Icarus 145, 391– 427, June 2000.) number of students at each of the planetary scientist, Threat? No Way!” on page 4.) The 3. The planetary protectors also twice-weekly meetings, consider- NASA Ames Research Center BILL NYE back contamination worthies need to need to explain why building a Mag- ing they are held at 7:30 a.m., educator JOSEPH RYAN deal with the following facts: inot Line around NASA’s tiny 500- before school begins. Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Marriott International 1. There’s not a shred of evidence gram (1.1-pound) sample is worth- What keeps these kids coming ROALD Z. SAGDEEV former Director, Space Research Institute, to support the notion that life of any while, as Mother Nature continues to back each week, in large part, is Russian Academy of Sciences kind exists on the Martian surface. In deliver, both ways, thousands of kilo- discussion of the issues raised in STEVEN SPIELBERG director and producer other words, the entire case in favor of grams of uninspected and unsterilized each issue of The Planetary KATHRYN D. SULLIVAN President and CEO, a back contamination threat from Mars materials. Report. I use the magazine as a Ohio’s Center of Science and Industry and former astronaut is a null set. But there is plenty of evi- Everyone agrees that measures springboard to discussion that NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON Director, Hayden Planetarium, dence to show that the putative threat should be taken to preserve the scien- encourages the kids to take a American Museum of Natural History does not and cannot exist, including: tific value of the Mars sample. The “minds-on” approach to learning • The Viking landers tested Martian issue is whether foundationless fears about astronomy. “Minds-on” Advisory Council JIHEI AKITA soil and found it free of organic materi- should be allowed to distort mission means they are not just learning, Executive Director, The Planetary Society, Japan al down to an accuracy of one part per design so as to increase the chance of they are learning to question intel- BUZZ ALDRIN Apollo 11 astronaut billion. Mars’ dust is mixed on a global failure. NASA lost two Ranger lunar ligently and to discuss both the RICHARD BERENDZEN basis. If there is no organic material in missions as a result of completely benefits and trade-offs of various educator and astrophysicist JACQUES BLAMONT the dust at the Viking landing sites, pointless spacecraft sterilization space missions. For example, the Chief Scientist, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France there is none in any dust on Mars. measures demanded by the planetary kids are upset that the government RAY BRADBURY The landers also detected strong protection folks. As a result of their seems intent on cutting back the poet and author • DAVID BRIN oxidizing agents in the Martian dust, demands, in 1998 the Jet Propulsion space program.