16.S. O’Keefe, telephone interview by author, May 31, 2017.
17.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (abbreviated NASA from this point forward), “New Horizons—The First Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt: Exploring Frontier Worlds,” press kit, January 2006, https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/139889main_PressKit12_05.pdf.
18.R. Taylor, Prometheus Project Final Report (982-R120461) (Pasadena, CA: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology [abbreviated JPL, CIT from this point forward], October 1, 2005), 112, https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/handle/2014/38185/05-3441.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
See also M. J. Wollman and M. J. Zika, Prometheus Project Reactor Module Final Report, for Naval Reactors Information (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, 2006), https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/37/107/37107481.pdf?r=1&r=1.
Much of the information about JIMO and Project Prometheus in this book derives from the final report, as well as from multiple interviews with members of the JIMO science and engineering teams, and from Curt Niebur and Sean O’Keefe at NASA headquarters.
19.National Research Council, Priorities in Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2006), 45, https//doi.org/10.17226/11432.
Mike Griffin, the then-incoming NASA administrator, placed the number at “eleven billion dollars and counting” during testimony before the Science, Space, and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives on June 28, 2005. A billion dollars is quite a difference, and NASA is notorious for those sorts of varying figures everywhere you look, in part because projects are sometimes developed across divisions and centers, and sometimes include launch costs or technology development. Pinning down the price of anything done by the agency is more an art than a science. Every project has stakeholders at headquarters, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the House, the Senate, NASA centers, and aerospace companies. Sometimes, numbers get fumbled. In every case, I have attempted to find the most reasonable project cost estimate available from the most reliable sources.
20.NASA, Johnson Space Center, “Space Shuttle Mission STS-31,” press kit, April 1990, 37.
See also National Security and International Affairs Division, NASA Program Costs: Space Missions Require Substantially More Funding Than Initially Estimated—Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House of Representatives (Washington, DC: U.S. General Accounting Office, December 1992), 8–9, http://archive.gao.gov/d36t11/148471.pdf.
See also P. K. Martin, NASA Cost and Schedule Overruns: Acquisitions and Program Management Challenges (Washington, DC: NASA Office of Inspector General, June 14, 2018), 1, https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/CT-18-002.pdf.
See also James Webb Space Telescope Independent Comprehensive Review Panel Final Report (JPL D-67250) (Pasadena, CA: JPL, CIT, October 29, 2010), 30, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/499224main_JWST-ICRP_Report-FINAL.pdf.
NASA’s Hubble cost estimates are always all over the place. The NASA press kit from the spacecraft launch claimed that the Hubble Space Telescope itself came in at $1.5 billion, with another “$300 million for the science and engineering operations which have been supporting both the spacecraft development and the ground science operations at Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute, and $300 million for the design, development and testing of servicing equipment to maintain the Telescope’s 15-year expected lifetime.” So: $2.1 billion in 1990 dollars, when the telescope launched. But a 2010 independent comprehensive review panel for the James Webb Space Telescope claimed that Hubble cost $2.8 billion (after adjustment to 1990 dollars) without its costs broken into various elements. A 2018 NASA inspector general report claimed that Hubble cost $1.2 billion, presumably for the spacecraft and presumably in 1990 dollars. A 1993 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed that the Hubble spacecraft itself (in other words, sans mission operations costs and data analysis) cost about $1.5 billion in 1990 dollars. Ultimately, the “a third of that” assertion went with the press kit, whose foundational dollar figure was confirmed by the GAO. But see what I mean about costs?
21.National Security and International Affairs Division, NASA Program Costs, 8–9.
See also “Space Shuttle and International Space Station,” NASA Kennedy Space Center, last modified August 3, 2017, https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html.
22.“Weather History Results for Washington, DC (20546), October 22, 2004,” Farmers’ Almanac, accessed June 4, 2019, https://www.weather.org/weather-history.
There was a high of 57.2 degrees F, with 8-knot winds. It drizzled that day, too, but at 0.01 inches, not enough to be worth mentioning.
23.R. T. Pappalardo, W. B. McKinnon, and K. K. Khurana, “Europa: Perspectives on an Ocean World,” in Europa (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009), 702–3.
For an alternate hypothesis on the thickness of the Europan ice shell—and, oh my goodness, is this a bitter rivalry!—see also the excellent R. Greenberg, Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (New York: Copernicus, 2008).
For the deepest hole ever drilled, see also A. Kröner, “The Superdeep Well of the Kola Peninsula,” Precambrian Research 42, nos. 1–2 (1988): 208–10, doi:10.1016/0301-9268(88)90019-8.
The exact thickness of the Europan ice shell is unknown, which is one reason planetary scientists are so determined to get a spacecraft to Europa. Multiple lines of evidence (and pretty much every scientist featured in this book) suggest a thickness greater than fifteen kilometers. For the “thin ice” argument, check out Rick Greenberg’s book Unmasking Europa, in which he also has some strong words to say about the scientists in this book. I’m not able to argue either way for the geophysics of Europa, but I’m definitely right about the people described in these pages.
24.National Research Council, A Science Strategy for the Exploration of Europa (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1999), https://doi.org/10.17226/9451.
25.C. Niebur, Investments in Europa Mission Concept Studies, September 16, 2009. This document was written in response to a request from the 2013–2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey steering committee.
26.E. Weiler, interview by author, September 4, 2017.
27.K. Batygin, telephone interview by author, February 22, 2018.
This is the simple version of the story of everything, and I am grateful to Konstantin Batygin of Caltech for helping to build the solar system. Thank you also to author and astrophysicist Adam Becker for fact-checking me through the formation of the sun and planetary scientist Kirby Runyon of the Applied Physics Laboratory for getting me from there to the formation of the Earth. Additional thanks go to Alfred Nash of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ever want to feel humble? Try to read even the simplest astrophysics paper.
For the basic narrative of the beginning of the universe, see also the following sources: E. M. Burbidge et al., “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars,” Reviews of Modern Physics 29, no. 4 (1957): 547–650, https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.29.547.
See also J. Pandian, “How Are Light and Heavy Elements Formed (Advanced)?,” Ask an Astronomer (Astronomy Department, Cornell University), last modified June 27, 2015, curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/84-the-universe/stars-and-star-clusters/nuclear-burn ing/402-how-are-light-and-heavy-elements-formed-advanced.
See also C. Palma, “Nuclear Fusion in Protostars,” Astronomy 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe, Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Supplies, accessed October 14, 2019, https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l5_p4.html.
See also A. H. Guth, “Inflationary Universe: A Possible Solution to the Horizon and Flatness Problems,” Physical Review 23, no. 2 (1981): 347–56, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.23.347.
See also A. D. Linde, “A New Inflationary Universe Scenario: A Possible Solution of the Horizon, Flatness, Homogeneity, Is
otropy and Primordial Monopole Problems,” in Quantum Gravity, ed. M. A. Markov and P. C. West (New York: Plenum Press, 1984), 185–95, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2701-1_13.
See also A. Albrecht and P. J. Steinhardt, “Cosmology for Grand Unified Theories with Radiatively Induced Symmetry Breaking,” Physical Review Letters 48, no. 17 (1982): 1220–23, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1220.
See also J. Pandian, “Could the Universe Have Expanded Faster Than the Speed of Light at the Big Bang?,” Ask an Astronomer (Astronomy Department, Cornell University), last modified June 27, 2015, http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/104-the-universe/cosmology-and-the-big-bang/expansion-of-the-universe/627-could-the-universe-have-expanded-faster-than-the-speed-of-light-at-the-big-bang-intermediat.
See also P. Sutter, “How Can the Universe Expand Faster Than the Speed of Light?,” Space.com, last modified July 2, 2016, https://www.space.com/33306-how-does-the-universe-expand-faster-than-light.html.
See also K. Spekkens, “How Can the Universe Expand Faster Than the Speed of Light During Inflation?,” Ask an Astronomer (Astronomy Department, Cornell University), last modified June 27, 2015, http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/109-the-universe/cosmology-and-the-big-bang/inflation/664-how-can-the-universe-expand-faster-than-the-speed-of-light-during-inflation-advanced.
See also M. Strassler, “Inflation,” Of Particular Significance, last modified March 17, 2017, https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/relativity-space-astronomy-and-cosmology/history-of-the-universe/inflation.
See also K. Tate, “Cosmic Inflation: How It Gave the Universe the Ultimate Kickstart,” Space.com, last modified March 17, 2014, https://www.space.com/25075-cosmic-inflation-universe-expansion-big-bang-infographic.html.
See also “The Origins of the Universe: Inflation,” University of Cambridge, Stephen Hawking Centre for Theoretical Cosmology online, accessed October 14, 2019, http://www.ctc.cam.ac.uk/outreach/origins/inflation_zero.php.
28.W. Johnson and R. Riegel, “Where Did All the Elements Come From?,” MIT Haystack Observatory, accessed October 14, 2019, https://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/pcr/Astrochemistry/3%20-%20MATTER/nuclear%20synthesis.pdf.
29.About the phrase “light as we see it didn’t exist yet”: Those fresh and free electrons turning heads were doing so in a very real way for primordial photons, scattering them every which way. If you could go back to this period in the history of the universe, it would all appear as a sort of hot, glowing, opaque mass, like looking at the surface of a star (but way, way hotter). Consequently, even the most powerful telescopes cannot see earlier than the Big Bang plus about three hundred eighty thousand years. Once basic atoms formed, however, those photons could travel without hindrance, and the universe became “transparent.” Is the phrase “light as we see it didn’t exist yet” literary sleight of hand? Yes, because, of course, light existed. But I hope sympathetic astrophysicists would grant me a little artistic license here.
30.F. Bagenal, email message to author regarding Jupiter magnetosphere, September 8, 2018.
See also F. Bagenal and S. Bartlett, “Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets Group—Graphics,” University of Colorado Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, accessed October 11, 2019, http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/mop/resources/graphics/graphics.
31.J. Sustermans, Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), circa 1640, oil on canvas, 867 mm x 686 mm, Royal Museums Greenwich, accessed May 21, 2019, https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/14174.html.
32.G. Consolmagno and P. Mueller, Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? . . . And Other Strange Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory (New York: Image, 2014).
This is an extraordinary work by two legends in the field of space science. Though the title suggests a focus on aliens, the book is more accurately an examination of how science and religion complement each other, and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the history of astronomy. The authors discuss at length “the Galileo affair,” and common misconceptions. On that subject, the inescapable conclusion is that Galileo was not imprisoned for locking horns with Church dogma. Rather, he was imprisoned because he was just a real jerk about the whole thing, publicly daring the pope to push back—and lost.
33.T. L. Heath, ed., The Works of Archimedes (London: Cambridge University Press, 1897), 221–22.
Accounts of Aristarchus explaining his model of heliocentrism were conveyed by the Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes in The Sand Reckoner. Aristarchus’s work is largely lost to time, possibly due to the annihilation of the Library of Alexandria.
34.J. M. Pasachoff and A. Van Helden, “Simon Marius vs. Galileo: Who First Saw Moons of Jupiter (Abstract),” in Abstract Book, DPS 48/EPSC 11 (Washington, DC: American Astronomical Society, Division for Planetary Sciences, 2016), 172.
35.D. Lauretta, telephone interview by author, March 5, 2018.
36.R. M. Nelson et al., “Laboratory Simulations of Planetary Surfaces: Understanding Regolith Physical Properties from Remote Photo-polarimetric Observations,” Icarus 302 (2018): 483–98, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.11.021.
37.R. Greenberg, “Tides and the Biosphere of Europa,” American Scientist 90, no. 1 (2002): 48, https://doi.org/10.1511/2002.1.48.
38.H. Melosh et al., “Is Europa’s Subsurface Water Ocean Warm?” (presentation, Thirty-Third Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, League City, TX, March 2002), https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2002/pdf/1824.pdf.
39.K. M. Soderlund et al., “Ocean-Driven Heating of Europa’s Icy Shell at Low Latitudes,” Nature Geoscience 7 (2014): 16.
See also K. Soderlund, telephone interview by author, February 2, 2018.
40.J. Green, interview by author, May 6, 2017.
See also P. K. Byrne et al., “Limited Prospect for Geological Activity at the Seafloors of Europa, Titan, and Ganymede; Enceladus OK (Abstract P21E-3385),” in American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2018 (Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union, December 2018).
This abstract presents an alternate view to the Io-at-the-seafloor hypothesis.
41.A. C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001).
42.Ibid.
43.“NASA Anniversary: Apollo 11 Moon Landing, July 20, 1969,” NASA, last modified July 20, 2010, https://www.nasa.gov/news/media/audiofile/Apollo_11_Moon_Landing.html.
See also “Apollo 11 Mission Logs, July 20, 1969,” NASA, accessed May 22, 2019, https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo11/july20.htm.
Much as Hamlet might have said “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt . . .” or maybe “solid flesh,” or maybe “sallied flesh,” depending on the folio, the Apollo 11 transcripts are in a constant state of historical reevaluation. For example, did Neil Armstrong say “One small step for a man” or “One small step for man”? He insists he said “a man,” and that the “a” was lost in transmission. In this case, pick and kick are both possible messages in that second sentence he spoke on the lunar surface. Don’t @ me.
44.After taking the job at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Bob lived that first year and a half in a rented house in Altadena, and the landlord lived next door, and his first summer there it broiled outside, and the landlord explained that sure, this summer was warm, but this was unusual weather, Bob! I mean one hundred plus degrees? Not here in Altadena, not ordinarily, no siree! Not every day for a month like we’re seeing now, I mean! So Bob stuck it out, and the next scorching summer it hit one hundred again and that, too, lasted a month, and Bob, not at all cool with this, got in his car and drove west, one eye on the road, one eye on the dashboard thermostat. In the Eagle Rock/Burbank area, it dropped to ninety-two. By the time he hit the 405, it was eighty-five. At Eleventh Street in Santa Monica, it hit seventy-two, and he was resolved: I will live west of Eleventh. He found a bohemian bungalow, Venice beau ideal, just before the real estate boom and not far from the canals or the beach. It got cool in the evenings and was about an hour’s driv
e from the lab each way, but the Pacific and ten million miles separated the stress of work from Venice Zen. The horizon—you could just see Malibu, hazy along the shoreline—and those thirty degrees kept him going.
45.R. Pappalardo, telephone interview by author, October 27, 2017.
46.R. Pappalardo, “Meeting Goals & Philosophy” (PowerPoint presentation, Europa Project Science Group Meeting #1, JPL, Pasadena, CA, August 2015).
47.“The Mission to Mercury: Mission Design,” Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (abbreviated JHUAPL from this point forward), MESSENGER, accessed December 26, 2019, http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/mission_design.html.
NASA as an institution seems criminally incapable of preserving its hyperlinks, and thus hell-bent on burying the extraordinary digital record of its missions and activities. Searching the website of the European Space Agency, on the other hand, is like strapping on a time machine. Its gloriously maintained hyperlinks will survive the heat death of the universe.
48.NASA, JHUAPL, and Carnegie Institution of Washington, Twins Image (spacecraft image), NASA Image and Video Library, last modified August 2, 2005, https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA10122.html.
49.NASA, JHUAPL, and Carnegie Institution of Washington, Galapagos Islands (spacecraft image), NASA Image and Video Library, last modified August 2, 2005, https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA10121.html.
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