EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY James Rodger Fleming (Colby College) and Roger D. Launius (National Air and Space Museum), Series Editors This series presents original, high-quality, and accessible works at the cutting edge of scholarship within the history of science and technology. Books in the series aim to disseminate new knowledge and new perspectives about the history of science and technology, enhance and extend education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Collectively, these books will break down conventional lines of demarcation by incorporating historical perspectives into issues of current and ongo- ing concern, offering international and global perspectives on a variety of issues, and bridging the gap between historians and practicing scientists. In this way they advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but also to help define new areas of intellectual endeavor. Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era: Nuclear Antiaircraft Arms and the Cold War By Christopher J. Bright Confronting the Climate: British Airs and the Making of Environmental Medicine By Vladimir Jankovic´ Globalizing Polar Science: Reconsidering the International Polar and Geophysical Years Edited by Roger D. Launius, James Rodger Fleming, and David H. DeVorkin Eugenics and the Nature-Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century By Aaron Gillette John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon By John M. Logsdon A Vision of Modern Science: John Tyndall and the Role of the Scientist in Victorian Culture By Ursula DeYoung Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology By Brian Regal Inventing the American Astronaut By Matthew H. Hersch The Nuclear Age in Popular Media: A Transnational History Edited by Dick van Lente Exploring the Solar System: The History and Science of Planetary Exploration Edited by Roger D. Launius Exploring the Solar System The History and Science of Planetary Exploration Edited by Roger D. Launius EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM copyright © Roger D. Launius, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-27316-1 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44514-1 ISBN 978-1-137-27317-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137273178 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: January 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2013 Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Introduction Roger D. Launius 1 Part I Managing Planetary Science Chapter 1 Homer Newell and the Origins of Planetary Science in the United States 25 John D. Ruley Chapter 2 The Survival Crisis of the US Solar System Exploration Program in the 1980s 45 John M. Logsdon Chapter 3 Faster, Better, Cheaper: A Sociotechnical Perspective on Programmatic Choice, Success, and Failure in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program 77 Amy Paige Kaminski Part II Developing New Approaches to Planetary Exploration Chapter 4 Redefining Celestial Mechanics in the Space Age: Astrodynamics, Deep-Space Navigation, and the Pursuit of Accuracy 105 Andrew J. Butrica Chapter 5 Big Science in Space: Viking, Cassini, and the Hubble Space Telescope 129 W. Henry Lambright vi CONTENTS Chapter 6 Visual Imagery in Solar System Exploration 149 Peter J. Westwick Chapter 7 Returning Scientific Data to Earth: The Parallel but Unequal Careers of Genesis and Stardust and the Problem of Sample Return to Earth 165 Roger D. Launius Part III Exploring the Terrestrial Planets Chapter 8 Planetary Science and the “Discovery” of Global Warming 183 Erik M. Conway Chapter 9 Exploring Planet Earth: The Development of Satellite Remote Sensing for Earth Science 203 Andrew K. Johnston Chapter 10 Venus-Earth-Mars: Comparative Climatology and the Search for Life in the Solar System 223 Roger D. Launius Chapter 11 Missions to Mars: Reimagining the Red Planet in the Age of Spaceflight 249 Robert Markley Part IV Unveiling the Outer Solar System Chapter 12 Parachuting onto Another World: The European Space Agency’s Huygens Mission to Titan 275 Arturo Russo Chapter 13 Pluto: The Problem Planet and its Scientists 323 David H. DeVorkin Chapter 14 Transcendence and Meaning in Solar System Exploration 363 William E. Burrows Index 375 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Homer E. Newell, NASA associate administrator of space science in 1967 27 1.2 The Mariner 2 probe to Venus was a huge success 33 2.1 President Ronald Reagan and NASA administrator James Beggs at the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of NASA’s formation in 1983 51 2.2 Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, the founders of the Planetary Society at the time its organization 55 3.1 NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin was the longest serving of anyone in the position, 1992–2001, and profoundly shaped the agency, especially with his “faster, better, cheaper” emphasis 84 3.2 T his meteorite from Mars landed on Earth and was discovered in 1984 86 3.3 This image was created from several other images to give the impression of an overhead photograph of the Mars Pathfinder with the Sojourner rover at a nearby rock 88 4.1 Mariner 10 to Mercury was the first American spacecraft to perform a planetary gravity assist, a milestone in space navigation 109 4.2 The Deep Space Network map 115 4.3 T he Goldstone station, located in the Mojave Desert of California 118 5.1 This “glamour” photograph of the Viking lander from 1976 displays its major features, including its scoop and chemistry instruments 131 viii FIGURES AND TABLES 5.2 Flyaround of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) after deployment on this second servicing mission (HST SM-02) on February 19, 1997 135 5.3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) technicians clean and prepare the upper equipment module for mating with the nuclear propulsion module subsystem of the Cassini orbiter in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at KSC in 1997 140 6.1 Four types of data from the Mariner 9 mission to Mars in 1971 152 6.2 Uranus’s moon Miranda is shown in a computer-assembled mosaic of images obtained on January 24, 1986, by the Voyager 2 spacecraft 156 6.3 Global mosaic of Triton, taken in 1989 by Voyager 2 during its flyby of the Neptune system 157 6.4 A small crater inside the large Newton Crater on Mars 161 7.1 Genesis mission 169 7.2 Stardust US space mission 173 7.3 Artist’s rendering of the Stardust capsule returning to Earth 175 8.1 Mariner 2 was the world’s first successful interplanetary spacecraft 187 8.2 First image from Mariner 4 189 9.1 Global view produced using MODIS data acquired in 2001 206 9.2 The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier. One of the largest glaciers in Alaska 209 9.3 Oblique view of Hurricane Erin in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North America acquired in 2001 by the SeaWiFS sensor on the OrbView-2 satellite 211 10.1 A family portrait showing Pioneers 6–9, 10, and 11 and the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe series 224 10.2 C arl Sagan with the Viking lander mock-up in Death Valley, California, on October 26, 1980 233 11.1 (a) and (b) Imagery from the Viking orbiters 254 11.2 Image from the Mars Global Surveyor shows what appears to be seepage of water during a wet part of the Martian past 262 12.1 The European Space Agency’s Horizon 2000 plan laid out options for the twenty-first century 285 FIGURES AND TABLES ix 12.2 The Titan probe concept as executed with the Huygens lander 293 12.3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) technicians reposition and install the Huygens probe on the Cassini orbiter in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) 307 12.4 Image of the surface of Titan taken by the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe when it touched down 310 13.1 A stronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh at the door of the Pluto discovery telescope, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona 325 13.2 B rian Marsden, critic of Pluto’s planetary status, was longtime director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and its associated Minor Planet Center, both sanctioned by the International Astronomical Union 346 13.3 This comparison of the Earth and Moon with three Kuiper Belt bodies in the outer solar system demonstrates graphically the reason for assigning Pluto a new status 352 14.1 The 1842 voyage of the French vessels Astrolabe and Zelee toward Antarctica is depicted from Voyage au pole sud et dans l’Oceanie (1842) as it encounters a ice field 365 14.2 NASA artist’s conception of the Voyager spacecraft 369 14.3 Human and machine on Mars, artist conception, after 2040 371 Tables 12.1 The science team for the assessment study of the Cassini mission (1984–1985) 291 12.2 N ew members of the Cassini Science Team for the Phase A study (1987–1988) 296 12.3 The Huygens scientific payload approved in 1990 301 12.4 The Huygens interdisciplinary investigations approved in 1990 301