In a sense, it was the same program laid out by Wernher von Braun decades earlier.
Regardless, it did not succeed in placing humans on the moon or Mars. It found virtually no support among the public, but not to worry, said Congress: We were never going to fund it anyway. A recession soon set in, Bush lost reelection (space was not a factor), the Soviet Union collapsed, space station Freedom was replaced, &c. The program was more flare than wildfire.
And yet! It was a triumph if only symbolically of how far the Mars program had come. A decade earlier, science fiction fans were rattling cups to fund the Viking mission when NASA could no longer pay its bills. Now the president of the United States wanted to double NASA’s budget and put humans on Mars. That was progress. Moreover, it placed the agency on Mars footing. For the duration of the Bush presidency, studies proliferated at national laboratories, aerospace companies, and NASA centers. The moment it became clear that We Were Going to Mars, Jet Propulsion Laboratory slapped on the agency’s desk a little something it had been working on called the Mars Rover Sample Return. What size rover do you fine ladies and gents want? We have one that weighs about the same as a kangaroo, and gee willikers, is this thing a beaut. Ever see a kangaroo? Put a pair of boxing gloves on them and get out of the way, let—me—tell—you. Can go about a hundred meters. The rover [laughter], not the kangaroo. I don’t know how far kangaroos can go. This thing won’t be able to grab much sample, though. This is Mars on the cheap. But you know [wink], I really see you in something a little bigger. You want something bigger. You do, don’t you? I can always tell. How about this. One ton. Thing’s a doggone bison! A bison! Right there on the prairie. Nothing more American than that. We’d send it to Mangala Vallis, that old water channel on Mars. The rover! Not the bison! Got you again [nudge]. The channel was created by overflows! Water just gushing in! You believe that? Mars, what can I say! You don’t like that, we’ve got another model here—one ton, just like that one—we are not skimping here, let me tell you—and you could land this baby just about anywhere. We’d send an orbiter first. Nineteen ninety-six! You guys find a spot you like, and we’ll launch this baby in ’ninety-eight. Wait a minute. Hold on. You look like the kind of official who wants a little more monster for the money. [leans in, speaks softly] I’ve got something here. I—no, you don’t want this one. It’s too much to handle. It’s—well, look, OK—I’ll tell you. Can you keep a secret? We call it the Godzilla rover. Really! Could climb straight up, one-point-five meters. You know how tall that is? That’s the height of a refrigerator. Quite a discovery if we found a fridge on Mars, am I right? So we’d send this thing to Valles Marineris—they call it the Grand Canyon of Mars. Makes the real Grand Canyon look like a kiddie pool. Stretches over an entire face of the planet! Makes Mars look like a cracked egg. You think you’ll find some interesting samples there? [slaps back] The real question is what won’t you find there. Now let’s talk numbers . . .
390.Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation (Washington, DC: NASA, October 2009), 50, https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf.
391.Ibid., 86.
392.B. Iannotta, “Key U.S. Senator Cautions Obama on NASA Pick,” Space.com, last modified January 14, 2009, https://www.space.com/6313-key-senator-cautions-obama-nasa-pick.html.
This being his first . . .
393.R. Block, “Bill Nelson and Co. Take Down Obama’s NASA Front-runner,” Orlando Sentinel, last modified March 29, 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20090329162433/http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2009/03/bill-nelson-and-co-take-down-obamas-nasa-frontrunner.html.
. . . his second . . .
394.S. M. Powell, “Lampson Seen as Contender to Lead NASA,” Houston Chronicle, April 1, 2009, https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/baytown-news/article/Lampson-seen-as-contender-to-lead-NASA-1591164.php.
. . . and his third choice.
395.Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation, 7, 135.
396.J. Matson, “Phased Out: Obama’s NASA Budget Would Cancel Constellation Moon Program, Privatize Manned Launches,” Scientific American, last modified February 1, 2010, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-budget-constellation-cancel.
397.B. H. Obama, “Barack Obama Speech, Kennedy Space Center, April 15, 2010,” text, NASA, accessed October 22, 2019, https://www.nasa.gov/about/obama_ksc_pod.html.
See also L. Garver, interview by author, August 2, 2016.
398.J. Rockefeller, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111–267), 2010.
399.J. Davis, “To Mars, with a Monster Rocket: How Politicians and Engineers Created NASA’s Space Launch System,” Planetary Society (blog), October 3, 2016, https://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20161003-horizon-goal-part-4.html.
400.Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation, 7, 135.
NASA, Preliminary Report Regarding NASA’s Space Launch System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Washington, DC: NASA, January 2011), https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/510449main_SLS_MPCV_90-day_Report.pdf.
401.Ibid.
402.K. Chang, “For NASA, Longest Countdown Awaits,” New York Times, January 25, 2011, D1.
403.F. Newport, “Americans Want Space Shuttle Program to Go On” (poll, Gallup, Washington, DC, February 3, 2003), https://news.gallup.com/poll/7708/Americans-Want-Space-Shuttle-Program.aspx.
See also T. Redburn, “The Times Poll: 3 out of 4 Back Shuttle Program,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1986, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-28-mn-12716-story.html.
See also Zogby International, “IBOPE Zogby Poll: 6 in 10 Disagree with Ending Space Shuttle & Fear Others Will Surpass U.S. in Exploration,” press release, July 29, 2011, http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=34231.
404.J. McBride, What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
405.T. May, interview by author, August 11, 2016.
See also ibid., February 2, 2017.
See also ibid., April 3, 2018.
406.Rockefeller, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010.
407.Primarily K. Robinson, interview by author, April 3, 2018.
Thank you to Kimberly Robinson of Marshall Space Flight Center, who absolutely did not have time to speak with me, for teaching me how to build a rocket from scratch. It was like learning the ways of the Force from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
See also T. May, interview by author, August 11, 2016.
See also ibid., February 2, 2017.
See also ibid., April 3, 2018.
See also D. Hitt, telephone interview by author, July 11, 2016.
408.M. Garcia, “NASA Applies Insights for Manufacturing of Orion Heat Shield,” press release, September 24, 2015, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-applies-insights-for-manufacturing-of-orion-spacecraft-heat-shield.
409.S. Creech, P. Sumrall, and C. Cockrell, Ares V Overview and Status (Washington, DC: NASA, 2009), https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090042947.pdf.
See also C. Bergin, “NASA Report Favors SD HLV for SLS, Complains Agency Can’t Afford 2016 Target,” NASASpaceFlight.com (blog), January 12, 2011, https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/01/nasa-report-favors-sd-hlv-sls-complains-cant-afford-2016.
See also NASA, Preliminary Report Regarding NASA’s Space Launch System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Washington, DC: NASA, January 2011), https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/510449main_SLS_MPCV_90-day_Report.pdf.
See also C. Bergin, “SLS: Studies Focusing on SD HLV Versus RP-1 with F-1 Engines,” NASASpaceFlight.com (blog), March 24, 2011, https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/03/sls-studies-focusing-sd-hlv-versus-rp-1-f-1-engines.
See also K. Robinson, interview by author, April 3, 2018.
410.W.
D. Woods, How Apollo Flew to the Moon, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer, 2011), 79.
411.L. Hutchinson, “How NASA Brought the Monstrous F-1 ‘Moon Rocket’ Engine Back to Life,” Ars Technica, last modified April 15, 2013, https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life.
412.T. May, interview by author, February 2, 2017.
413.U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, A Review of NASA’s Space Launch System Hearing, 112th Cong., 1st sess., 2011, 6.
See also NASA, Preliminary Report Regarding NASA’s Space Launch System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
414.NASA, FY2013 President’s Budget Request (Washington, DC: NASA, 2012), retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/659660main_NASA_FY13_Budget_Estimates-508-rev.pdf.
415.NASA, FY2014 President’s Budget Request (Washington, DC: NASA, 2013), retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/750614main_NASA_FY_2014_Budget_Estimates-508.pdf.
416.NASA, FY2015 President’s Budget Request (Washington, DC: NASA, 2014), retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/508_2015_Budget_Estimates.pdf.
417.J. Ryba, “Space Shuttle Launch and Landing,” NASA, last modified September 11, 2012, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html.
418.T. May, interview by author, April 3, 2018.
See also T. Gavin, telephone interview by author, December 29, 2016.
419.B. Goldstein, telephone interview by author, November 16, 2019.
420.R. Pappalardo, interview by author, March 7, 2017.
421.S. Holaday, email message to R. Pappalardo regarding Ron Greeley, October 27, 2011.
422.C. Greeley, interview by author, February 7, 2017.
423.C. Greeley, email message to author, December 13, 2013.
424.Ibid., December 8, 2013.
425.G. Webster, “‘Greeley Haven’ Is Winter Workplace for Mars Rover,” NASA: Spirit and Opportunity: Mars Exploration Rovers, last modified January 5, 2012, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120105.html.
426.R. Greeley, Introduction to Planetary Geomorphology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), i–vi.
427.Europa Study Team, Europa Study 2012 Report (JPL D-71990) (Washington, DC: NASA, May 1, 2012), https://europa.nasa.gov/resources/63/europa-study-2012-report.
428.Ibid., B-25.
429.L. Prockter, “Europa Mission Studies” (presentation, Outer Planets Assessment Group, St. Louis, MO, March 2012).
430.R. Pappalardo, “SRS Research Leave: Proposal” (paper, JPL, Pasadena, CA, April 10, 2012).
431.R. Pappalardo, telephone interview by author, December 29, 2017.
432.J. Kane, “I Had an Epiphany,” New Yorker, October 3, 2005, 81.
433.K. Clark et al., Jupiter Europa Orbiter Mission Study 2008: Final Report (Pasadena, CA: NASA, JPL, January 2009).
434.K. Clark et al., 2007 Europa Explorer Mission Study: Final Report (JPL D-41283) (Pasadena, CA: NASA, JPL, November 2007).
435.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, 50th anniversary 1 vol. ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
436.R. Pappalardo, “SRS Research Leave: Accomplishments” (paper, JPL, Pasadena, CA, February 19, 2013).
437.C. Niebur, telephone interview by author, October 16, 2018.
438.D. Blankenship, personal journal entry, March 20, 2012.
439.Meeting Findings (Atlanta, GA: Outer Planets Assessment Group, January 11, 2013), https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/jan2013/MeetingReportl.pdf.
440.R. Pappalardo and L. Prockter, joint interview by author, October 9, 2018.
441.H. Rogers, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2013 (Pub. L. 113-6), March 26, 2013.
442.S. Streeter, “Appropriations Bills: What Is Report Language?” Congressional Research Reports, accessed October 16, 2019, http://congressionalresearch.com/98-558/document.php?study=Appropriations+Bills+What+is+Report+Language.
443.Mikulski, B. Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act H.R. 933 Explanatory Statement, March 11, 2013.
444.H. Rogers, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2013 (Pub. L. 113-6), March 26, 2013.
445.J. Culberson, telephone interview by author, August 1, 2019.
See also J. Casani and H. Eisen, Europa Lander Mission Study: Spacecraft & Mission Description Document (Pasadena, CA: JPL, June 2011).
446.J. Culberson, telephone interview by author, May 29, 2019.
447.J. Green, interview by author, May 6, 2017.
448.L. Garver, interview by author, August 2, 2016.
449.NASA, FY2013 President’s Budget Request (Washington, DC: NASA, 2012), retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/659660main_NASA_FY13_Budget_Estimates-508-rev.pdf.
450.C. Dreier, C. “[Updated] Senate Bill Restores $223 million to NASA’s Planetary Science Division,” Planetary Society (blog), March 27, 2013, http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2013/20130312-proposed-senate-bill-restores-223-million-to-planetary-science.html.
451.J. Green memorandum to Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director for Solar System Exploration, April 22, 2013.
452.Europa Enhancement Science Definition Team, Europa Summer Study Final Report, Part 1 (Pasadena, CA: JPL, December 2012).
453.Ibid.
454.D. Senske, email message to R. Pappalardo and L. Prockter regarding draft email to Europa Science Advisory Group, January 8, 2013.
455.NASA, “Europa Formulation Key Accomplishments in FY12–FY13” (PowerPoint slide, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 2013).
456.D. Leone, “NASA’s Europa Mission Concept Progresses on the Back Burner,” SpaceNews.com, July 22, 2013, https://spacenews.com/36388nasas-europa-mission-concept-progresses-on-the-back-burner.
See also V. Thomas, email to ICEE teams regarding the rules of the competition, October 1, 2013.
457.S. Niebur, “Waiting for Test Results,” Toddler Planet (blog), January 3, 2011, https://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/waiting-for-test-results.
458.S. Niebur, “Perspective Shift,” Toddler Planet (blog), January 20, 2011, https://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/perspective-shift.
459.S. Niebur, “Us Lucky,” Toddler Planet (blog), January 22, 2011, https://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/us-lucky.
460.S. Niebur, “My Baby Is Four Today,” Toddler Planet (blog), January 14, 2011, https://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/my-baby-is-four-today.
461.S. Niebur, “How Did We Get Here?,” Toddler Planet (blog), January 22, 2012, https://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/how-did-we-get-here.
462.Division for Planetary Sciences, “2012 Annual Meeting Schedule,” 2012, https://dps.aas.org/dps_meetings_archive/2012/block.pdf.
463.Division for Planetary Sciences, “2012 Prize Recipients,” 2012, https://dps.aas.org/prizes/2012.
464.K. Retherford, email message to C. Niebur regarding discovery of Europa’s water vapor plumes, December 5, 2013.
465.C. Niebur, email message to K. Retherford regarding discovery of Europa’s water vapor plumes, December 6, 2013.
466.K. Retherford, email message to C. Niebur regarding discovery of Europa’s water vapor plumes, December 6, 2013.
467.L. Roth et al., “Transient Water Vapor at Europa’s South Pole,” Science 343, no. 6167 (2014): 171–74, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1247051.
468.“Hubble Space Telescope Optics System,” NASA, last modified November 12, 2019, http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-space-telescope-optics-system.
469.L. Roth, telephone interview by author, January 18, 2019.
470.K. Retherford, telephone interview by author, December 6, 2018.
471.Ibid.
See also L. Roth, telephone interview by author, January 18, 2019.
472.C. Niebur, interview by author, May 6, 2017.
473.J. Green, interview by author, May 6, 2017.
474.“Hubble Space Telescope Sees Evidence of Water Vapor Venting off Jupiter Moon,”
NASA, last modified August 7, 2017, http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-europa-water-vapor.
475.Wright Brothers National Memorial North Carolina, “Announcing Details of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Event,” press release, July 16, 2019, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/planyourvisit/apollo-11-50th.htm.
476.A. Hamer, “Neil Armstrong Took a Piece of the North Carolina Outer Banks to the Moon,” Curiosity, last modified October 13, 2018, https://curiosity.com/topics/neil-armstrong-took-a-piece-of-the-north-carolina-outer-banks-to-the-moon-curiosity.
477.W. Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land,” on Folksay: American Ballads and Dances (New York: Asch Record Company, 1944).
478.J. Salute, telephone interview by author, October 25, 2018.
479.T. Gavin, telephone interview by author, January 18, 2017.
480.R. Pappalardo, telephone interview by author, December 21, 2018.
481.Ibid.
482.B. Goldstein, telephone interview by author, November 16, 2018.
483.Nor, for the record, was there any doubt at NASA headquarters about who was in charge: the project manager.
484.R. Pappalardo and B. Cooke, “Europa Clipper OPAG Update” (Power-Point presentation, Outer Planets Assessment Group, Arlington, VA, July 2013), https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/jul2013/presentations/Clipper_Summary.pdf.
485.K. Clark et al., Jupiter Europa Orbiter Mission Study 2008: Final Report (Pasadena, CA: NASA, JPL, January 2009).
486.A. Frick et al., “Overview of Current Capabilities and Research and Technology Developments for Planetary Protection,” Advances in Space Research 54, no. 2 (2014): 221–40, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2014.02.016.
487.National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Review and Assessment of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2018), 48, https://doi.org/10.17226/25172.
488.NASA, “Phoenix Launch: Mission to the Martian Polar North,” press kit, August 2007, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/phoenix-launch-presskit.pdf.
See also Frick, “Overview of Current Capabilities,” 221–40.
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