The Planetary Report Volume 11 Issue 3

24 Pages·1991·5.6 MB·English

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.. -.. ,........---.. ~~------.--------------
A Publication of
o 0-e rYS OCIETV
THE PLANE~
o
o
o •
Board of Directors
FROIVI THE
CARL SAGAN BRUCE MURRAY
President Vice President
Director, Laboratory for Planetary Professor of Planetary
Studies. Cornell University Science, California
Institute of Technology
LOUIS FRIEDMAN
Exec!)tive Director JOSEPH RYAN
O'Me/veny & Myers
MICHAEL COLLINS
Apollo 11 astronaut STEVEN SPIELBERG
director and producer Nations around the world are chang looks at possible launch vehicles for fu
THOMAS O. PAINE
fCohrmaiermr Aand,m Ninaitsiotrnaatol r, NASA HEfNinRaYn cJia. Tl cAoNnNsuElRta nt ing, shifting their political alliances ture space projects.
Commission on Space and struggling to convert their economies. Page 18-News & Reviews-The state
Board of Advisors Few aspects of life will escape change. of the space program and the reasons for
DIANE ACKERMAN JOHN M. LOGSDON How will this all affect planetary explo mass extinctions once again engage the
poet and author DGiereocrgtoer , WSapsahcineg Ptoonli cUyn Inivsetritsuittye , ration and the search for extraterrestrial attention of our reviewer.
ISAAC ASIMOV
author HANS MARK life? In this issue of The Planetary Report, Page 19-5ociety Notes-Phone-a-thons,
Chancellor,
RICHARD BERENDZEN University of Texas System we continue to deal with this question, the search for Viking veterans and a con
educator and astrophysicist
JAMES MICHENER and we will keep on exploring possible tinuation of our asteroid study program
JACOUES BLAMONT author
NCahtiieofn Sacl ide'nEtitsut.d eCse Sntprea tia/es, MARVIN MINSKY answers. are among the news items we report to
France Toshiba Professor of Media Arts Page 3-Members' Dialogue-Our first members.
and Sciences, Massachusetts
RApYo BeRt aAnDdB aUuRthYo r Institute of Technology foray into this arena addressed the ques Page 20-Q & A-What could we learn
ARaTuHtUhoRr C. CLARKE PHIIInnLssItPtiitt uuMtteeO PRorRfo TfIeSescOshNonr ,o lMogays sachusetts ctioosnt ooff whuhmetahne rM oar rsn omt iwssei ocnasn. Sjuesvteifrya l thoef Cbyo usledn dwien gs opmroebheosw t os eTeidt aVn eannuds Etou rmopaka?e
COPRrNofEesUsSo rD oEf SJApaGcEeR Research, PAUL NEWMAN our members took issue with Society it a more Earth-like planet? We tackle
The Astronomiea/lnstitute at actor
Utrecht, The Netherlands JUN NISHIMURA President Carl Sagan's ideas, and we these thought-provoking questions in this
FRPArNofKe sDsRoAr KofE A stronomy and Danirde cAtsotrr-oGneanuetircaal, l ISncsiteitnuctee so,f JSappaacne reprint some of their responses here. column. -Charlene M, Anderson
ACsatlrifooprnhiyas aicts S, aUnntaiv eCrrsuitzy of BERNARD M. OLIVER Page 4-Can Space Exploration Sur
Chief, SET! Program,
LEE A DUBRIDGE NASNAmes Research Center vive the End of the Cold War?-The
former presidential
science advisor SALLY RIDE Space Age was born in the fierce ideolog A Recycling Experiment
Director, California Space Institute,
JOHN GARDNER University of California at ical competition of the Cold War, but that With this issue of The Planetary Re
founder, Common Cause San Diego, and former astronaut
MARC GARNEAU ROALD Z. SAGDEEV driver of exploratory endeavors is now port, we are trying an experiment: It
Canadian astronaut former Director, gone. Bruce Murray, our Vice President, is printed on recycled paper.
GEIOnsRtiGtuItYe GoOf ALtImTSoYsNph eric Physics, AIncsatidtuetme fyo ro Sf pSaccieen Rceess eoafr tchhe, . USSR shares some of his thoughts on the future Many readers may not notice a
THAPErcOeasDdiOdeeRmnEyt EoMmf. S eHcrEiiteuSnsBc, UeRs GofH th e USSR HAafRonRrdmI SAeOrp oNUl SloH S.1 eS7nC aaHstoMtrr,o IDnNa Mu.t odifs cthues sisopna coen pthriosg qruames tiaonnd. continues the tdhieff pearepnecr eis, ba ubti to gthraeyrse rw, sioll thseee c othloart
University of Notre Oame S. ROSS TAYLOR
SHeIRdLuEcaYt oMr. aHnUdF juSrTisEtD LER NPraotfioenssaol rUianti vFeerlsloitwy,, ACuasntbraelriraan tPianguei n8g- MMisasgieolnla-Wn aht iVlee nbuasc:k T ohne ECaornth bimrigahgte ass mthaeyy wnoout lda popne vairr gqinu istteo caks.
GARRY E. HUNT LEWIS THOMAS
space sCientist, Chancellor, Memorial Sloan we debate the future of planetary explora Some may find, however, that the
United Kingdom Kettering Cancer Center
tion, out at Venus a spacecraft is diligently text is easier to read since the grayer
SERGEI KAPITSA JAMES VAN ALLEN
Institute for Physical Problems, Professor of Physics, doing its job. This is our latest update on stock is not as glaring as 'the brighter
Academy of Sciences of the USSR University of Iowa
the progress of the mission. paper.
The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published six times yearly at Page 14- The Soviets and SETI: The A large part of The Planetary Re
the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue,
Pasadena, CA 91106, [phone]. It is available to members of The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence port's mission is to bring you the
Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US or Canada are $25 US dollars
or $30 Canadian. Dues outside the US or Canada are $35 (US) and Perestroika-Even while economic spectacular images returned by in
Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON forces have been threatening many scien terplanetary spacecraft. Will you be
Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE
Assistant Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS tific programs, the loosening of other re satisfied by their reproduction on
Copy Editor, GLORIA JOYCE
Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH strictions in the Soviet Union has opened recycled paper?
Viewpoints expressed in columns or editorials are those of the authors and fields likeSETI to the cross-fertilization Some may feel it is environmen
do· not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers
or advisors. © 1991 by The Planetary Society. of ideas. Sociologist David Swift talked tally responsible if the nearly three
In Canada, Second Class Mail Registration Number 9567
with SETI researchers about the changes quarters of a million magazines we
COVER: The United States has scheduled the Mars in the Soviet Union and the effects on produce each year are printed on re
Observer for a 1992 launch; the Soviet Union plans their work. cycled stock- but will we be better
to send spacecraft to the Red Planet in 1994 and Page 17-World Watch-NASA's serving our members by doing it?
1996. But these missions were well under way before
the political upheavals of late 1989 effectively ended space station Freedom has taken center Since we are a membership orga
the Cold War and removed much of the competitive stage in considerations of the future of nization, ultimately the decision is
impulse that drove space exploration. Will telescopic
views from Earth orbit, such as this image from the planetary exploration. What is its pur up to you. Please write to let me
Hubble Space Telescope, become the future of pose? What is it good for? are among the know how you feel about our recy
planetary studies? Or will we find new reasons to
questions now being debatea. This issue's cling experiment. -CMA
explore the solar system?
Image: Space Telescope Science Institute column recounts the growing debate, and
NEWS
BRIEFS
As administrators ofa membership organization, The Planetary Society's Directors and staff A panel advising NASA on how to
care about and are influenced by our members' opinions, suggestions and ideas about the compensate for the Hubble Space
future of the space program and of our Society. We encourage members to write us and create Telescope's flawed primary mirror
a dialogue on topics such as a space station, a lunar outpost, the exploration of Mars and the
and recurring 'jitters" reported its
search for extraterrestrial life.
conclusions to the space agency in
Send your letters to: Members' Dialogue, The Planetary Society, 65 N. Catalina Avenue,
January. But now NASA wants a
Pasadena, CA 91106.
different set of scientists and engi
neers to reevaluate the first group's
Thank you very much for the most interesting and informative article, "Eureka! The Recovery of recommendations.
1982DB" in the January/February 1991 issue of The Planetary Report. I am pleased with The A set of corrective mirrors fig
Planetary Society's support for those dedicated to searching for new asteroids. ures prominently in the strategy
I must update readers of the Report about the misconception that 1982DB is the most accessible panel's recommendations. This box
asteroid mission candidate. In January 1990, while researching newly discovered asteroids for of mirrors, called COSTAR, for
accessible Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous candidates, I discovered 1989ML to be significantly Corrective Optics Space Telescope
more accessible than 1982DB. I promptly reported this to Robert Farquhar, widely known for his Axial Replacement, should correct
role in redirecting the International Cometary Explorer spacecraft to encounter comet Giacobini the optical distortion afflicting three
Zinner, and to Brian Marsden, director of the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical of the telescope's scientific instru
Observatory. ments. But its potential cost and
Apparently this news has not become widely known. I plan to present a paper on the subject at an development time justify seeking
upcoming astrodynamics conference. another opinion, says Charles 1.
-JIM V. McADAMS, Schaumburg, Illinois Pellerin, head of astrophysics at
NASA's Office of Space Science
The following letters are in response to Carl Sagan's essay, "Humans to Mars: Can We Justify the and Applications.
Cost?" which appeared in the January/February 1991 issue of The Planetary Report. Pellerin notes that, if the new
panel backs COSTAR, NASA
If we could be sure that every dollar not spent on a Mars mission was spent on housing, education, should have time to complete the
health care or saving the environment, we'd have to consider it money well spent. But appropria device and include it in a Hubble
tions depend as much on political will as on economic realities. I could accept delaying a Mars servicing scheduled for 1993.
mission to help feed the hungry or house the homeless. I can't accept spending the Mars money on -from Science News
the Strategic Defense Initiative or the Senate barbershop.
Space science has always been the poor stepchild of the manned program, and it's often been said
that with no human program there would be no space science. As flawed as the shuttle program has
The ozone layer in Earth's upper
been, we might not have had Calileo or Magellan without it. If we abandon plans to go to Mars
atmosphere is being depleted much
because we can't justify a $100 billion price tag, we may find that Congress will no longer approve
faster than scientists realized, and
robotic missions with a $100 million price tag.
the United States could suffer
As long as Mars remains a goal with no fixed date, it helps fund the large number of precursor
200,000 more skin cancer deaths
missions necessary in a rational program for its long-term exploration. Without human exploration,
than previously expected over the
we may not get these missions funded. Tactically, it makes more sense to keep pushing for human
next 50 years, says William K.
exploration as a way of keeping the space science budget healthy, as long as we privately accept that
Reilly, administrator of the Envi
human missions may not depart for another 50 years.
ronmental Protection Agency
If organizations like The Planetary Society abandon the dream of Mars, no one else will carry the
(EPA).
torch. We may find that we've lost a dream of evolutionary significance and are no closer to solving
Reilly reports that rather than
the other pressing problems of society than we were before.
thinning by 1 to 3 percent during
-JON LOMB ERG, Honaunau, Hawaii
the last 12 years, as earlier studies
indicated, the ozone layer over the
There's a proverb that says, "If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never
US has been degraded by 4 to 5
plant anything and never harvest anything." I think we're waiting for perfect weather to begin the
percent. This new evidence was
manned exploration of Mars and the solar system, and there isn't any. I doubt that there ever will be.
gathered by NASA.
We must stop feeling guilty for asking our nation and world to do something they need to do and
In light of the new studies, Reilly
should do. NASA is not the reason there is poverty, illiteracy or illness. Eliminating everything we
is intensifying an EPA campaign to
spend on space would not solve all these problems. Waiting to go to Mars won't either.
reduce the use of ozone-damaging
No age of history ever ended without an unfinished agenda. We are in the age of space and the
chemicals and is "exploring the full .
answers to the problems that still beset us lie ahead of, not behind, us. I don't believe we'll help any
range of options" to help other
one by being deliberately stagnant in any area of scientific knowledge or endeavor.
countries do the same.
The Planetary Society can spur the aerospace community and NASA to be more imaginative and
According to the National Cancer
daring. Little goals get little enthusiasm. If NASA can't seem to get excited and imaginative inter
Institute, US skin cancer mortality
nally, then groups like The Society need to keep supplying enthusiasm, ingenuity and leadership
is now about 8,500 a year. [The
from the outside.
planet Mars has no protective
Whatever and whenever our leaders decide, let's make our own commitment to go to Mars
ozone layer; as a result, its surface
irrevocable and keep doing whatever is necessary until we get there. The wind and weather are
is antiseptically clean.]
good enough!
-from Rudy Abramson in the
-DANIEL E. POWERS, St. Francisville, Illinois
Los Angeles Times 3
S pace exploration has been
intimately tied to the Cold
War that followed the bloody
fever of World War II. As the Cold
War ends, so does much of the
energy and momentum that pro
pelled us to wondrous achievements
in space. I ask the question: Can
space exploration survive the end
of the Cold War?
It's been 46 years since the end
of World War II, 34 years since
Sputnik 1, 22 years since Apollo 11
landed on the Moon, and less than
1 year since Germany was reunified.
All these events are connected. The
end of World War II launched the
Cold War, in which competition
between the two surviving super
powers triggered the great move
ment toward space. With Sputnik 1,
the competition accelerated into a
race, won when Apollo 11 landed on
the Moon. The Cold War continued
for decades after the Space Race
... was over, but now that, too, is end
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:u:~ :L~~:'lr~u:rl!ay::::::::::::::::::::
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lot like Nikita Khrushchev when he
focused his country's efforts on
space, resulting in Sputnik 1. But
perestroika and its unintended side
effects revised Gorbachev's priori
ties. In 1989, when President Bush
called for the United States to return
to the Moon and then go on to Mars,
he was a lot like former President
Kennedy trying to set the nationalis
tic Apollo goal to get the country
moving. In the last few years of the
1980s, the highest leadership in both
major spacefaring nations moved to
do something really big in space. In
both cases, these leaders found that
their countries were not in the mood
for a dramatic new leap in human
exploration.
What about Europe, which even
.. ........ .... ... before the closing stages of the Cold
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...•6 . .•.v. •.••!fI .•••. . •e~.~...... ~.••. •.••. .••..:. .••...• •.•.•.. .••~.•...••.·.••...~ •·...· ....¥· ....~~...*~ ...•...•...~.•.. . ...•.... ..•~ .•. • tah me uScohv isemt Ualnleior nc?iv Eilu srpoapcee spurpopgorratms ,
~ primarily because there is not yet
any European human space pro
gram. Its priorities for space were
4
already fairly low relative to all the remote, hostile Antarctic that would be
other things it felt it had to do. Now, highly relevant to the more clement,
with the unification of Germany, the inhabited regions of Earth. Where do
opening of Eastern Europe and new we now study the infamous ozone witnessing
needs and opportunities vis-a-vis the hole? In the Antarctic. That forbidding
USSR, there are tremendous new continent has become an extremely the endaf
challenges that must be faced to shape important information storehouse and
Europe's future- and the world's. observation post for global phenome the first great
These will drain European resources na. What we learn in Antarctica can ..
and affect political priorities. teach us about processes that affect "
era a/space
Japan is still developing its space all of us living on this planet.
identity. It must find a place in space
,exploration,
consistent with its new status as a great Ulysses and Other.Y
economic power. However, it will not An Epic AUempt
which was
do for Japan simply to repeat the na With a sophisticated population in the
tionalistic endeavors of the US and spacefaring nations, the comparative
60rn in the
the USSR. Japan must find a context planetology argument-that we learn
that makes sense in the 21st century. about Earth by studying Earth and
It either has to compete or cooperate. Mars, for example-carries some Cold War
But ifit competes, with whom? Cer weight. This argument, especially
tainly not with the ghosts of American when related to global environmental
and Soviet accomplishments from change, will drive robotic planetary
decades past. science at some level, regardless of
what happens to human exploratory
From Conflict to Cooperation endeavors. War ends-
A Shared Adventure? The robotic spacecraft Ulysses,
I am led to the conclusion that we are which is now on its way to study the
witnessing the end of the first great Sun's polar regions, is a step in the
era of space exploration, which was continuing process of exploring the
born in the Cold War, declined as the solar-terrestrial environment. There
Cold War ran down, and is ending must be a connection between solar
when the Cold War ends-now. activity and climatic change on Earth;
So, a second phase begins. In the we just don't know what it is. Ulysses
absence of Cold War international and its successors can help us find the
conflict, can international cooperation link. man exploration?
become the driver for new space ex Mars and its polar caps, which hold There is the critical issue of indus
ploration? Well, if it doesn't, if the records of the geologic times we trial capacity. The US and the USSR
spacefaring nations don't embrace Earthlings call Ice Ages, could spark have invested enormous sums in spe
international cooperation in space similar "practical" interest. If Some cialized aerospace capacities and, as
exploration, there isn't going to be thing strange was happening at the the Cold War winds down, they have
much space exploration. Without the same time on both Earth and Mars, to make choices. Should they disband
justification of shared endeavors to that would suggest that the primary the aerospace infrastructure? In the
ensure- even celebrate-the peace, cause of glaciation was external to US, that means the work force would
the public won't support the expense. Earth. If there was no shared plane be dispersed and would eventually
That doesn't mean there won't be a tary history, then the origins of the Ice show up in other places in the econo
few scientific missions now and then, Ages would be due to some very rare my. In the USSR, it might mean
but there is not going to be-for a internal activity on Earth. large-scale unemployment and moth
very long, long time-a popularly Comparative planetology can be a balled, obsolete factories. Or should
shared and publicly supported adven long-term driver for a modest level of the US and the USSR find ways to
ture in which new worlds are opened. robotic scientific exploration of keep their space infrastructures intact?
There will be only a minimal human Earth's neighborhood of the inner Both countries have to make choic
space program, one confined to safe, solar system. Occasionally, perhaps, es. The only way to maintain the
low Earth orbit. some planetary object farther out world leadership in space that they
Are there any national factors that could be slipped into the program. now enjoy is to keep the programs
may push for that adventure in the But, overall, that's a fairly diminished that use it, and such efforts have to be
next few years? I think there are at range of possibilities. nationally funded, The long-term need
least three. to retain and enhance aerospace capa
When Scott and Amundsen raced Industrial Capacily- bilities was dramatically reinforced
to the South Pole for the nationalistic Worth Preserving? by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on
glory of being first, no government What other drivers could make it August 2, 1990, If the leading indus
leaders and very few scientists imag- , worthwhile to fund and give priority trial powers-the US, the USSR,
ined that we would learn things in the to space exploration, especially hu- Japan and Western Europe-don't 5
maintain their national aerospace sure it will be easy to sell that point future that holds more than just a new
capabilities, with future weaponry of view. It's not easy in the US either, type of VCR. Even though they are
implications, then aerospace,tech although NASA's budget continues materially better off than their parents,
nology will tru'ly become a market to be increased each year. In both and much better situated than their
place enterprise, Then oil revenues countries there has been a diffusion grandparents, they want to believe
can buy first-class weaponry, as Iraq of political power from the centers there is something wonderful in the
tried to do, Washington and Moscow-to many future, something they've not yet
There are going to be more wars. other constituencies. At the same time experienced, that no one has experi
There are going to be more Iraqs be in Western Europe, there has been a enced. This basic human need is more
cause tension points throughout the reverse flow of power to transnational profoundly sensed by political leaders
world are unrelieved. From time to entities. than by scientists. Human spaceflight
time, the self-interests of the US and Another way of characterizing is a political manifestation in many
other industrial countries will be these changes is privatization, a popu ways, as it has always been in the US
lar word in England and the US, and and the USSR, and may soon be in
one that is becoming popular in the Japan and Europe.
USSR and in formerly communist Those are three reasons why I think
countries. However, privatization po spacefaring nations may decide to put
litically means that the central govern energy and resources into international
If the space ment loses control of resources. And space exploration despite the strident
space exploration can only be carried demands of domestic issues. But will
faring nations out by central governments. they? I can't prophesy. I do assert that
I assert that there is an inescapable the international exploration of space
national security need to keep special, is a dream worth pursuing, and that
don't embrace
high-technology industrial capabili the exploration of Mars can be the
ties. Only targeted, very difficult focus of that dream.
international
programs will suffice. It doesn't do
any good for governments to subsi All Excellellt Begilllling
cooperation
dize mundane programs. We cannot, An encouraging start for this dream
for instance, settle for less than a took place not on Mars, but in Cali
I•n space
space station that promises outstand fornia's Mojave Desert. In September
ing scientific and technological 1990, a team from the Centre National
exploration, achievements-and is worth the cost. d'Etudes Spatiales, the French space
The results will be mundane industrial agency, and representatives from the
there isn't capability. Leading nations must sub Babakin Center and the Institute for
sidize state-of-the-art programs; they Space Research in Moscow worked
going to be must attempt things that have not with an American team organized by
been done before if they wish to pos The Planetary Society and including
much space sess unequaled technological capabili volunteers from the Jet Propulsion
ties. Space exploration can provide Laboratory and students from Utah
exploration. the popular challenge for such techno State University, Caltech, UCLA and
logical nurturing, especially in a time the University of Arizona. This multi
of diminished perception of global national team tested a prototype of a
war. balloon intended to investigate Mars'
atmosphere as part of the Soviet Mars
A Need for Heroes '94 mission. The American Mars
The third argument I would offer for Observer spacecraft is being modified
international cooperation in space to enhance the amount of high-resolu
among industrialized nations is that, tion imaging and other data returned
threatened. Military force will have to as affluence develops, there is an by the balloon.
be used again. Those countries that acute need for heroes. The rise of in In another example, 10 US scien
consider themselves world leaders dustrialization often diminishes reli tists, including myself, worked on the
will have to choose a few nationally gious and traditional beliefs, resulting Soviet Phobos '88 mission. Soviet sci
funded, subsidized programs to keep in a dearth of heroes, besides rock entists are now working on Magellan
some specialized technologies safely stars and athletes-and astronauts and and will work on Mars Observer.
away from the marketplace, beyond cosmonauts. There is a genuine social Americans have been selected to par
what somebody else can buy. If they need for individuals who go out and ticipate in the Mars '94 mission. So
don't, they will eventually be con do something that the rest of us can't cooperative robotic exploration of
fronted with military situations that do. If industrialized societies don't Mars is off to a good start.
will be very unpleasant. produce moral heroes, nihilism and
So selective aerospace leadership fragmentation loom. Providing heroes Finding Answers Together
is a driver. This is a sophisticated is part of ruling, part of governance. In order for humans to fly to Mars, we
argument, and with regionalism and Young people all over the world must gather more information about
6 populism rising in the USSR, I'm not want to believe. They need faith in a the martian surface, first with Mars
Observer, then with more ambitious other countries, if they wished to in
robotic missions. This next phase must vest in this endeavor) conducting a
involve large rovers and, eventually, series of long-duration tests on Mir.
The inter
sample-return vehicles, which both the This effort could build on the pioneer
US and the USSR have studied. The ing Soviet flights and bring to bear
national
best way to do this would be for the American scientific and technological
two leading spacefaring nations to capabilities to provide the large and
exploration
work together, with European Space diverse human biomedical data base
Agency, French or Japanese participa needed to make engineering choices
tion. for the interplanetary flight. The mis of space is a
There are other technical challenges. sion and system design for human
For example, we do not now know flight to Mars cannot proceed far dream worth
how to enable humans to survive for without these critical data.
the duration of the year or longer pursuing,
flight, then get out of the spaceship Of Ships and Spaceports
and successfully work on Mars. There Another thing we need if we are to get and the
may also be dangers from radiation to Mars is a giant rocket. It will take a
during the flight that will be hard to lot more propulsion than Apollo need exploration
overcome. ed. Some kind of Earth-orbital facility
We could immediately accelerate for spacecraft assembly and fueling of Mars can
our gathering of this critical physio will probably be required, where the
logical knowledge if the US and the space shuttle or a yet-to-be-developed
be thefocus
USSR sat down together to design a American heavy-lift vehicle can dock,
program for a group of cosmonauts as well as the Soviet Energia, ESA's
of that
and astronauts (and individuals from Ariane 5, and maybe the Japanese
H-2. You can call it a transportation
dream.
node or a spaceport or whatever.
Sending humans to Mars is a big
task. If it is to be an international en
deavor, the key spacefaring nations
must be able to operate from the same
platform. Yet there is no such design
Space
or concept, so far as I know. This re
mains a critical step, one that must be gate the martian surface environment.
exploration
addressed in the future. The path to Mars requires serious
Finally, the spaceship that carries multinational discussion of robotic
can provide
humans to Mars must have unprece exploration, biomedical questions and
dented reliability. It's a long trip. You the characteristics of the spaceport.
the popular
can't come home early. You have to So this is my dream of a future
be able to trust your ship. That ship among the planets, and it is one that is
challenge will have to recycle the necessities of eminently realizable. An international
life, such as water and oxygen, to an Mars program would channel, enhance
for techno- unprecedented degree. It will be much and catalyze interest in planetary ex
more like going around the world ploration among all the spacefaring
logical continuously submerged in a subma countries.
rine than like going to the Moon in It is for this reason that The Plane
nurturing, the Apollo spacecraft. We must learn tary Society, with 120,000 members
how to recycle and to live in an at worldwide, is so focused on interna
especia"lly least partly recycled environment. tional exploration of Mars. We think
Some of this work has already begun that "Together to Mars" is the linch
in a time of - on the ground- but it's very scat pin of future space exploration. A
tered. Ultimately the prototype for the new era of international exploration
diminished Mars flight should be built in Earth must be our future, and it will both
orbit. We can test it, make it right, reflect the beginning of a new era on
until we trust it in Earth orbit. Then Earth and help bring it into being. We
p erception
crews can fly it to the Moon and back all have much work to do to make it
before setting out for Mars. This will happen.
of .global
be a natural way for international
ground crews to learn to work together. Bruce C. Murray, Professor of Plane
. war.
I have discussed these challenges in tary Science at the California Institute
terms of time. We can wait longer for of Technology andformer Director of
the spaceship than we can to begin the the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is Vice
biomedical qualification or to investi- President of The Planetary Society.
7
Mage//an at Venus •
•
The Continuing Mission
Charlene M. Anderson is Director of Publications for The Planetary Society.
8
26
25
24 Geologic Map of
Sif Mons
The history of a planet's surface can be
read by studying the different exposed
23 geologic units. Using the Magel/an data,
a team of investigators has constructed
this preliminary geologic map of Sif
w
o Mons and its surroundings. The volcano
is an isolated, symmetrical peak, about
::> 22
t- 300 kilometers (190 miles) in diameter
t- and 3.7 kilometers (about 2.3 miles)
e::{ high. The crater-like feature at its sum
-'
mit is a caldera some 40 kilometers
21 (25 miles) across, which is about 10
times larger than the summit caldera
of Kilauea in Hawaii. In this map the
caldera is identified as smooth,
homogeneous plains.
20
Like the gently sloping shield volca
noes of Earth, Sif seems to have been
formed by successive eruptions of fluid
lava. A ring (annulus) of such textured
19 lava flows surrounds the summit caldera.
The mottled plains were formed by
numerous overlapping flows. The finger
shaped digitate plains, between 250 and
350 kilometers (150 and 215 miles)
18 long, probably represent the eruption of
extremely fluid lava. Southeast of the
volcano is a concentration of small
shield volcanoes and lava flows, iden
350 351 352 353 354
tified here as domed plains.
LONGITUDE
The part of Venus that includes Sif
o 100 km Mons, the western Eistla region, has
been particularly well studied by Magel
I
lan scientists. Here and on pages 11,
LEGEND 12 and 13 we feature several different
III types of scientific products that they
HOMOGENEOUS SMOOTH PLAINS have created from the spacecraft data.
III Each one tells a slightly different story,
RADIALLY TEXTURED ANNULUS and by combining them we can gain a
D 0 deeper understanding of the processes
DIGITATE PLAINS MOTILED PLAINS that shape the planet.
III
Map: O.A. Senske, J.w. Head, Ellen Stofan and
DOMED PLAINS
D Jerry Schaber
DARK PLAINS
STRUCTURES
---
~---- FRACTURES/FAULT S
~."'- SINUOUS RIDGES
~.~
0
CALDERA
0 9
IMPACT CRATER
For years, ever since was revealed in
early radar data, the crater Cleopatra has tanta
lized scientists, who wondered how it came into
being. Sitting on the eastern flanks of Maxwell
Montes, the highest mountains on Venus, the
circular feature could have been a volcanic
caldera, collapsed into the mountain following a
tremendous eruption. Or it might have been an
impact crater, blasted out by a meteorite that
survived the trip through Venus' tremendously
thick atmosphere (with a pressure 90 times
that of Earth's).
Now, with Magellan's radar resolution of
about 120 meters (390 feet), the puzzle has
been solved. Cleopatra is a classic, double
ringed impact crater, similar to many such fea
tures on the Moon, Mars and Mercury. It's about
100 kilometers (60 miles) across and 2.5 kilo
meters (1.6 miles) deep. From its eastern rim,
a flow of molten rock breached the crater wall,
streamed downhill and surrounded ridges on the
slopes below. The rock may have been melted by
the force of the meteorite striking the ground or
by volcanism triggered by the impact.
Pancakes on the Griddle
(Or, Pass the Syrup)
In the first rush of discovery, even serious and
sober scientists are tempted to call strange and
unusual landforms by the names of familiar ob
jects. Such was the case with the pancakes on
Venus, a series of dome-like hiUs averaging 25
kilometers (16 miles) across and 750 meters
(2500 feet) in height that sit on the eastern
edge of the Alpha Regio highlands. There are two
competing explanations-so far-for their forma
tion. They could be eruptions of viscous lava
from vents in ground so level that the lava simply
flowed evenly in all directions, like thick pancake
batter poured on a griddle. Or they might be the
surface expressions of shallow magma intru
sions, welling up from the molten mantle, that
pushed up the surface layer into domed forms.
Arachnoids on Venus
Strange, spider-like forms had appeared in the
radar images from the Soviet Veneras 15 and
16, mapping spacecraft that began studying
Venus in 1983. Scientists were puzzled by these
"arachnoids," circular features surrounded by
thin lines radiating out, and looked forward to
Magellan data, which would reveal details 10
times finer than Venera's.
In this Magellan image, the arachnoids don't
seem quite so spider-like, but they are nonethe
less intriguing features. They appear to be
Venus' own distinctive way to release internal
heat. When molten magma wells up from the
mantle, it can form small hot spots under the
crust. Above them the surface may bulge up,
cracking as it deforms. When the magma sub
sides, the bulges collapse. Such a process may
explain these a'rachnoids.