The Interstellar Age
Page 28
will remain essentially pristine: Sagan et al., Murmurs of Earth, pages 233–34.
“Even as they are celebrated . . .”: Stephen Pyne, “Voyager: A Tribute,” The Planetary Society blog, posted September 25, 2013 (online at planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2013/20130920-voyager-a-tribute.html).
Postscript: NewSpace
controlling about thirty different spacecraft: For a complete listing of the currently active spacecraft exploring our solar system today, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_probes.
doled out nearly $2.5 billion: See NASA’s Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office website for more details on government support of the emerging “NewSpace” sector at http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home.
Acknowledgments
The trajectory of my life has been so full of gravity assists from so many people that I hardly know where to begin. I owe the start of my career in planetary science to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, and especially to Voyager, both of which got me hooked on the thrill of mission-related science and exploration. It seems appropriate, then, that I issue a blanket thank-you to the men and women who first dreamed up the mission in the 1960s, who built and launched the spacecraft in the 1970s, who flew them magnificently past the giant planets, and who teased scientific discovery after discovery out of their dozen or so science investigations in the 1980s, and to the people who still operate them and enable us to communicate with them today, at the boundary of where the solar and interstellar winds mingle. Although I was only directly influenced by a few of the many thousands of people who brought these missions to life, I was indirectly influenced enormously by your integrated effort. I wish I could have met and talked with all of you. But at least I can see you all there, looking up and smiling at Voyager as part of the Pale Blue Dot.
Among the few Voyager team members whom I do mention specifically in this book, I want to specifically thank the following colleagues for generously giving their time for e-mails, phone calls, reviews, fact-checking, and/or in-person interviews: Suzy Dodd, Gary Flandro, Heidi Hammel, Candy Hansen, Ann Harch, Andy Ingersoll, Torrence Johnson, Charley Kohlhase, Jon Lomberg, Jamie Sue Rankin, Larry Soderblom, Linda Spilker, Ed Stone, Rich Terrile, and Randii Wessen. I want to specifically call out Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone’s incredible generosity of time and his enthusiasm for my attempts to try to capture many of the personal thoughts and reactions that he and his team had, and the challenges that they faced, during this decades-long adventure of a lifetime.
I would also like to thank the many friends and mentors who helped me get from small-town Rhode Island to the azure-blue shores of Neptune (and beyond) along with the Voyagers. My Coventry High School chemistry teacher, Dr. Barry Manley, helped set me and my best friend, Bobby Thompson—another amazing source of consistent support and camaraderie—on lifelong careers in science, partly by simply asking, “Why don’t you go look that up?” Thank you to Mark Allen at Caltech for giving a freshman a fun research project to work on, even though we were supposed to be concentrating on our classes; and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my pal and mentor the late Ed Danielson for teaching me some of the arcane art of image processing and for helping me get a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of the inner sanctum of planetary exploration—the science operations rooms of Building 264 during the Uranus flyby. And thank you, Fraser Fanale, one of my PhD committee members from Hawaii, for giving me a ticket to the same inner sanctum for the Neptune flyby three and a half years later. You were all enablers, but the good kind.
I have enjoyed working with Stephen Morrow at Dutton, Penguin Random House as much on this project as I did on Postcards from Mars. Thank you, Stephen, for sharing my vision of robotic exploration as really being human exploration, and driven by strong human emotions and frailties, at that. Thank you also to Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich for your constant support and encouragement of my work, especially this, my first attempt at trying to tell a nerdy space story without so many pictures!
Finally, I want to thank my family for their never-ending support in my journey outward, to California, then to Hawaii, and then onward, among the planets. Don’t worry, I still actively seek out grinders, cabinets, bubblers, and Del’s, even on other worlds. Special thanks are also due to my daughter Erin for helping with some of the voice transcriptions of my interviews, and to my wonderful, beautiful friend Jordana Blacksberg for her love, support, encouragement, editing, and spectacular cooking. I am loving this interstellar journey that we are now on.
Index
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
NOTE: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Acta Astronautica, 46
Adams, John Couch, 192–194, 211
Adrastea, 128
Alchemy, 274
Aldrin, Buzz, 8
Allen, Mark, 27–28, 30
Amalthea, 128
Ames Research Center, 135, 283, 286
Anders, William, 227–228
Antennas
DSN, 63, 138, 199, 200, 255
Galileo, 129
Voyager, 56, 57, 236, 255, 276
Apollo, 8–9, 48
Apollo 8, 227–229
Apollo 17, 229
Arago, François, 193
Archimedes, 225
Ariel, 181, 243
Armstrong, Neil, 8
Astrology, 163, 195
Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, 62
Atmosphere
Earth, 139
Mars, 285
Neptune, 200, 205–207
Saturn, 134, 139–141
Triton, 215–216
Uranus, 177, 188–189
Venus, 285
Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem, 52
Attitude control, 113–114
Autonomous fault protection, 55
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 95
Beatles, 90
Becker, Tammy, 216
Becquerel, Henri, 274
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 95
Bell, Jim
Caltech undergraduate experience, 8, 26–33, 46, 163–164, 175–176, 177, 186
childhood space interest, 10–13, 133–134
Neptune flyby viewing, 211
Planetary Society membership, 24
University of Hawaii graduate program, 8, 186–188, 195–198
Uranus flyby viewing, 34–36
Voyager memories, 7–8
Berry, Chuck, 90–91
Beta Pictoris, 60
“Big Science,” 167–168
Bioastronomy Symposium: Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, 287
Blue Marble, 229
Booms, 56–57
Borman, Frank, 227, 228
Borucki, Bill, 283–284, 286, 287
Boston University, 263
Brown, Robert, 78–79
Building 179, 57–58
Building 264, 34, 176, 219
Burgess, Eric, 75
Bus, 50–51, 56, 57
California Institute of Technology (Caltech). See also Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Bell’s undergraduate experience, 8, 26–33, 46, 163–164, 175–176, 177, 186
Flandro’s graduate work, 42
JPL administration, 50
South Mudd building, 28
Terrile’s graduate work, 59
Callisto, 107, 108, 126–127, 131, 166, 243
Canberra Deep Space Communication facility, 63
Canopus, 113
Cape Canaveral, 51
Carter, Jimmy, 21–22
Casani, John, 20, 77
Cassini mission, 25, 51, 67, 129–130, 156, 157, 158–159, 189, 237–238
Celestial mechanics, 43
Ceres, 242, 243
Challenger, 38, 195
Charon, 218
Clear filter, 113
Clouds and cloud-like features
Io, 118
Jupiter, 103–104, 108, 128, 129
Neptune, 7, 60, 204, 207, 209
Saturn, 151
Titan, 141
Uranus, 169, 170, 177, 178, 188
Collins, Andy, 157, 230–231
Comets, 245–246, 280
Command Control Subsystem, 52
Communication with extraterrestrial life. See Messages sent into space
Computer systems, 52–53, 174
Copyright, 90
Coronal mass ejections, 246
“Cosmic Call” messages, 81
Cosmic rays, 16–17, 247, 259, 260–261
Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS), 17, 246–248
Cosmos, 11–12, 24, 91, 231
Cruikshank, Dale, 60
Cryovolcanism, 145
Culberson, John, 132
Curie, Marie, 274
Curie, Pierre, 274
Curiosity rover, 10, 26, 84
Danielson, G. Edward, Jr., 29–33, 34, 38–39, 175, 176, 177, 203
Deep Space Network (DSN)
Canberra, Australia station, 63
Pioneer communication, 278
role of, 63–64
Voyager communication, 108–109, 138, 174–175, 199, 255, 277
Diagrams, Golden Record contents, 85–90, 94
Digital messages, 99
Dione, 142, 147, 150, 243
DNA, 87, 92
Dodd, Suzy, 65, 66, 68, 253, 258, 260, 271, 276, 277, 278
Drake, Frank, 75–76, 77–78, 83, 85, 86, 87, 89, 91
Drake equation, 78
Dreier, Casey, 253
Druyan, Ann, 83, 85
DSN. See Deep Space Network (DSN)
Dunham, Edward “Ted,” 184
Dwarf planets, 242–243
Dwarf stars, 280–281
Dysnomia, 242
Earth
atmosphere, 139
characteristics of, 223–225
magnetic field, 171
photographs of, 225–231, 236–239
Earthrise, 228–229
8-track tape player-recorder, 53–54
Elliot, Jim, 184
Enceladus, 131, 142, 146–147, 151, 158–159, 166, 241, 243
Eratosthenes, 225
Eris, 242, 243
Europa, 115, 120–125, 127, 130–132, 166, 241, 243
Extrasolar planets, 282–288
Extraterrestrial life, 75, 77, 80, 104–105, 131, 287, 289. See also Messages sent into space
Fanale, Fraser, 197–198, 211
Federally Funded Research and Development Center, 50
Ferdowsi, Bobak, 268
Ferris, Timothy, 83, 85, 90
Fisk, Len, 234–235, 266
Flandro, Gary, 42–47, 105
Flight Data System, 52, 53
Flight Engineering Office, 14–15
Flight Operations Office, 15
Flight Science Office, 14, 15
Forward scattering, 128
Friedman, Louis, 24
Galilean satellites, 104, 131
Galileo, 25–26, 51, 120, 124, 126, 129, 189, 237
Galileo Galilei, 103, 165–166
Galle, Johann, 193, 211
Ganymede, 107, 115, 126, 127, 131, 166, 241, 243
“Gas giants,” 206, 208–209, 288
German Space Operations Center, 162
Geysers, 216–217
Gliese 445 star, 280–281, 289
Gloeckler, George, 266–267
Golden Record
background, 77–84
content, 84–97
cover, 85–90
future of, 288–289
mounting location, 85
NASA approval, 90
sounds on, 84
“Grand Tour of the Solar System!,” 7–8
“Grand Tour” trajectory, 45–49, 141–142
Gravity assist, 41–47, 105–106, 192
Great Red Spot, 103–104, 128–129
Ground Data Systems Office, 15
Gurnett, Don, 264–266
Hale-Bopp Comet, 280
Hale Telescope, 59
Hammel, Heidi, 20, 35, 60–61, 143, 180, 188–189, 204–205, 209, 210
Hansen, Candice “Candy,” 65–66, 68, 109–112, 132, 152, 157, 162–163, 202, 203, 204, 212, 230, 235–236
Harch, Ann, 36, 69
Hawking, Stephen, 81
Haynes, Norm, 235
Heliopause, 247, 254, 257, 258–271
Heliosheath, 257, 258–259
Heliosphere, 244–251, 256–257, 259–261
Helium, 134, 208, 244, 259, 279
Herschel, Caroline, 166–167
Herschel, John, 166
Herschel, William, 165–166, 191
High Bay Spacecraft Assembly Facility, 57–58
Hoagland, Richard, 75, 156–157
Hooke, Robert, 103
“Hot Jupiters,” 283
Hubble Space Telescope, 29, 51, 130, 168, 185, 188, 250
Huygens Titan lander, 156, 189
Hyakutake Comet, 280
Hydrocarbons, 139, 140, 141
Hydrogen, 86, 88–89, 91–92, 134, 178, 179, 208, 244, 252, 254, 259
Iapetus, 142, 145
IAU (International Astronomical Union), 242–243
Ice, on Uranus and Neptune, 179, 208–209
“Ice giants,” 208–209, 287–288
Image motion compensation, 173–174
Image processing
Caltech/JPL staff, 29–39
early technology, 10
from Voyager in future, 281–282
Voyager team, 15, 109–114, 116–119, 128, 150–151, 173–174, 202–203, 252
Images, Golden Record contents, 84–93, 94
Infrared radiometer interferometer and spectrometer instrument (IRIS), 67
Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), 58–59
Ingersoll, Andy, 128–129, 150, 203–204, 205
Instruments, 15–16
International Astronomical Union (IAU), 242–243
Interstellar medium, 244
Interstellar space, 244–251, 253–258
Interstellar wind, 244
Io, 107, 109, 111, 114–120, 127, 166, 242, 243
IRIS (infrared radiometer interferometer and spectrometer instrument), 67
IRTF (Infrared Telescope Facility), 58–59
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Building 179, 57–58
Building 264, 34, 176, 219
Caltech management, 27
Deep Space Network management, 63
facilities, 49
“Grand Tour” mission, 45–48
gravity assist research, 42
High Bay Spacecraft Assembly Facility, 57–58
NASA affiliation, 49–50
project management, 14–15
Voyager spacecraft construction, 49–58
Voyager team, 162
Johnson, Torrence, 20, 116–117, 118, 119, 159, 202, 203
JPL. See Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), 126
Juno mission, 130
Jupiter
Bell’s childhood telescope viewings, 13
Cassini mission, 129–130
discovery of, 103–104
Flandro’s gravity assist research, 43–46
Galileo mission, 25–26, 51, 120, 124, 126, 129, 189, 237
Great Red Spot, 103–104, 128–129
internal structure, 208
Juno mission, 130
magnetic field, 54, 73, 110, 130, 178
moons, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109, 111, 114–128, 130–132, 166–167, 241, 243
New Horizons mission, 130
Pioneer mission, 73, 103
ring discovery, 128, 144
Voyager mission, 23, 47, 48, 49, 59, 103–132, 107–108, 109, 120–121
Voyager’s radio transmissions from, 63
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), 126
Kaguya, 237
KBOs (Kuiper belt objects), 147, 217–218
Kepler, 284–288
Kohlhase, Charley, 55, 68–69, 105, 106–107, 110, 135, 136, 138, 140, 147–148, 159, 182, 200, 201–202, 219
Kuiper, Gerard P., 217
Kuiper Airborne Observatory, 184
Kuiper Belt, 97, 242
Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), 147, 217–218
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 115
Lemmon, Mark, 238–239
Le Verrier, Urbain, 43, 192–194, 211
LIFE magazine, 227, 229
Lomberg, Jon, 79, 82–84, 85, 87, 90, 91, 95, 98–99, 219–220, 282
Lopes, Rosaly, 120
Lovell, Jim, 227, 228
Lunar Orbiter I, 226–227
Magellan, 51, 195
Magnetic fields
Earth, 171
Ganymede, 126
heliosphere-interstellar space boundary, 246, 249, 254, 256, 257, 259, 261, 262–264, 266, 267, 269, 271
Jupiter, 54, 73, 110, 130, 178
measurement tools, 16
Neptune, 200, 209–210
Saturn, 73, 135, 178
Stone’s research, 16–17
Uranus, 37, 170–171, 177–180, 185
Magnetometers, 16
Malin Space Science Systems, 39
Mariner 2, 50