THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2014 VOLUME 34, NUMBER 2 planetary.org ORIGINS ON ICE STUDYING THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S FROZEN FINGERPRINTS LIGHTSAIL TO LAUNCH! C PUSHING THE BUDGET BOULDER C VITAL VOLUNTEERS SNAPSHOTS FROM SPACE EMILY STEWART LAKDAWALLA blogs at planetary.org/blog. Farewell, Neptune NEPTUNE WAS THE VOYAGER mission’s final planetary encounter. On September 3, 1989—about nine days after its closest approach—Voyager 2 captured the images that I composed into this color composite of Neptune and Triton. As the planet rotated between shots, clouds moved and smeared into rainbow spots on Neptune’s crescent. Many of Voyager 2’s departing photos of Neptune were blurred due to Lakdawalla Image: NASA/JPL/Emily spacecraft jitter during the long exposures required to image anything at all at Neptune’s vast distance from the Sun. This view is composed of three of the sharpest images. —Emily Stewart Lakdawalla SEE MORE AMATEUR-PROCESSED SPACE IMAGES PLANETARY.ORG/AMATEUR SEE MORE EVERY DAY! PLANETARY.ORG/BLOGS 2 THE PLANETARY REPORT C JUNE SOLSTICE 2014 CONTENTS JUNE SOLSTICE 2014 Science Festival Mania 7 Kate Howells reports on volunteers who shared The Planetary Society with about 300,000 festivalgoers in April. COVER STORY Ice in the Solar System 8 Julie Castillo-Rogez takes a look at the many types of ice in our solar system… and what they might mean for us. Preparing to Sail 14 Doug Stetson shares exciting news about our spacecraft. DEVELOPMENTS IN SPACE SCIENCE Planets at Alpha Centauri? 20 Bruce Betts brings us the latest report from Debra Fischer. ADVOCACY 22 Breaking Sisyphus’ Curse Casey Dreier describes pushing NASA’s budget up Capitol Hill. DEPARTMENTS 2 Snapshots from Space Saying farewell to Neptune. 4 Your Place in Space Bill Nye is excited about our progress. 6 Happening on Planetary Radio Online radio brings exciting guests! 6 On Planetary.org Check out our site! 19 What’s Up? A meteor shower and a total lunar eclipse. Image: NASA/JPL/Emily Lakdawalla Image: NASA/JPL/Emily ON THE COVER: From the shadowed craters of Mercury, to the outer edges of the Oort cloud, ice is ubiquitous across our planetary neighborhood. Variations in chemistry, temperature, and pressure have produced the roughly two-dozen types of ice we’ve observed, or expect to see, in our solar system. By reading the stories trapped in their ices, scientists gain valuable insights into the interior evolution and climate regulation of planetary bodies. The graceful contours of this deep crevasse are the result of melting in an Antarctic iceberg. Photo: Mint Images–Art Wolfe/Science Photo Library CONTACT US The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published quarterly at the editorial Editor JENNIFER VAUGHN The Planetary Society offices of The Planetary Society, 85 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105-1602, Senior Editor DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS 85 South Grand Avenue 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues in Art Director LOREN A. ROBERTS for HEARKEN CREATIVE Pasadena, CA 91105-1602 the United States are $37 (U.S. dollars); in Canada, $40 (Canadian dollars). Dues Copy Editor AXN ASSOCIATES General Calls: 626-793-5100 in other countries are $57 (U.S. dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Technical Editor JAMES D. BURKE E-mail: [email protected] Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Science Editor BRUCE BETTS Internet: planetary.org Number 87424. Viewpoints expressed in columns and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, or its advisers. © 2014 by The Planetary Society. All Rights Reserved. The Planetary Society and The Planetary Report: Registered Trademarks ® The Planetary Society. Planetary Radio and Planetfest ™ The Planetary Society. YOUR PLACE IN SPACE COFOUNDERS BILL NYE CARL SAGAN is chief executive 1934–1996 officer of The Planetary Society. BRUCE MURRAY 1931–2013 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman of the Board DANIEL T. GERACI Founder & co-CEO E.F. Hutton Holdings Canada Inc. Investing in the Future President JAMES BELL Professor, School of Earth That’s What We Do at The Planetary Society and Space Exploration, Arizona State University Vice President HEIDI HAMMEL Executive Vice President, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy WE’RE GETTING READY to fly ourLightSail ® give us a special view of our spacecraft flying Chief Executive Officer BILL NYE in 2016! free in space. Science Educator Things are humming along in the lab for Thanks to all of you for making these Light- LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN Cofounder our LightSail spacecraft and it is nearly ready Sail missions possible. Secretary for flight. I’m excited to announce that we C. WALLACE HOOSER Associate Professor of Radiology, have secured a rocket launch for our LightSail! AT WORK IN WASHINGTON, D.C. University of Texas Southwestern Medical School This launch will take place, by the way, on Recently, several members of the staff and G. SCOTT HUBBARD Professor, Department of an American-made rocket: SpaceX’s Falcon I traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University Heavy. Getting our small but mighty LightSail The Planetary Society in force at the third Treasurer spacecraft built and ready to go has taken us USA Science and Engineering Festival. This LON LEVIN SkySevenVentures several years, but we’re closer to finishing it. year, there were about a third of a million ALEXIS LIVANOS We’re getting ready to do the day-in-the- attendees. Emily Lakdawalla gave some great Research Professor, Viterbi School of Engineering, life testing essential to any successful mission. presentations about the planets and nearby University of Southern California JOHN LOGSDON We’re using our test spacecraft to change worlds using the spectacular pictures she has Professor Emeritus, Space Policy Institute, The George Washington University operating modes while its systems are all access to. Mat Kaplan conducted several fas- BIJAL “BEE” THAKORE running, a vital task. We’ll check that it can cinating interviews. Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, Space Generation Advisory Council receive and transmit commands and telem- It was a highlight as well to broadcast NEIL deGRASSE TYSON Astrophysicist and Director, etry. We’ll deploy the sails on a surprisingly Planetary Radio Live right from the floor of Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History large, x-shaped test fixture. We’ll make sure the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. FILLMORE WOOD the solar panels are providing power and We had great guests: Lockheed Martin Vice President and Regional Counsel, BP, retired that the cameras take pictures and process Chief Technology Officer Ray Johnson, Mike INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL them properly. Using an elegant simulator, Rowe, from Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, ROGER-MAURICE BONNET Executive Director, we’ll give the navigation and attitude control and Emily. They talked about all the skilled International Space Science Institute YASUNORI MATOGAWA systems a check ride. If we find any problems, workers—the welders, technicians, electri- Associate Executive Director, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency we’ll have time to fix them. Then, we can cians, and you-name-it—that the United MAMORU MOHRI start testing our flight spacecraft. States needs for space exploration. We had a Director, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation great time. (If you haven’t yet heard the show, RISTO PELLINEN PICTURES FROM EARTH AND SPACE you can find it at planetary.org/radio.) Director of Science in Space Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute LightSail pictures alone are going to be worth There is an old saying about Washington, ADVISORY COUNCIL BUZZ ALDRIN the trip. And by pictures, I mean the ones D.C., that it’s a small town based on relation- RICHARD BERENDZEN JACQUES BLAMONT taken by the onboard cameras, as well as ships. We are establishing excellent ties with ROBERT. D. BRAUN DAVID BRIN the ones that people like you will take from members of the U.S. Congress and the admin- JAMES CANTRELL FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ the ground. This solar sail is big enough and istration, especially the all-important Office FRANK DRAKE Creative A. Roberts/Hearken Loren Photo: OWEN GARRIOTT shiny enough to be naked-eye visible from of Management and Budget (the OMB). As GARRY E. HUNT BRUCE JAKOSKY the ground. It’s exciting. I often remark, even if you don’t live in the THOMAS D. JONES CHARLES E. KOHLHASE JR. In Spring of 2016, we’ll send LightSail to United States, what goes on at NASA affects LAURIE LESHIN JON LOMBERG an orbit where we can control and operate you, because it is by far the single largest ROSALY LOPES HANS MARK our spacecraft over many months. On that space agency in the world. JOHN MINOGUE ROBERT PICARDO mission, we’ll be flying close to another space- Three of us made the rounds recently, going JOHN RHYS-DAVIES KIM STANLEY ROBINSON craft, Prox-1, which will be able to take images from one congressional member’s office to DONNA L. SHIRLEY KEVIN STUBE of the sail from a distance. These pictures will another. Our team included our director of 4 THE PLANETARY REPORT C JUNE SOLSTICE 2014 YOUR PLACE IN SPACE advocacy Casey Dreier, our lobbyist in Wash- ington Bill Adkins, and me. People know who we are now in a way that they didn’t before. More importantly, they know our message. We want NASA and U.S. space policy to support and follow the National Research Council’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey. We want $1.5 billion for planetary science. And we very much want a mission to Europa, INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE ABOVE Mike Rowe the Jovian moon, which last year was found Perhaps the most significant thing for me as (second from right), to be spewing water into space.