Projects: Space Information
The Planetary Report
Volume XXVI, Number 5, September/October 2006
Credit: The European Space Agency (ESA) and AOES Medialab |
On the Cover
SMART-1, Europe's first mission to the Moon, is a success! Designed
to test technologies, such as deep space electric propulsion, for future interplanetary
missions (the spacecraft reached the Moon using only 60 liters, or just under
16 gallons, of fuel), SMART-1 is a sparkling example of international cooperation
among Europe, the United States, Japan, and India.
From The Editor
The summer of 2006 started off with heat waves blistering the Northern Hemisphere
of our planet and closed with one of the most burning disputes in recent popular
science, as headlines around the world trumpeted—in print and on computer
screens—“Pluto Demoted, No Longer a Planet.”
Some people exulted, believing the demotion was long overdue. Others vented
their outrage and vowed to fight, while petitions went up across the Internet
and schoolchildren wrote letters of protest to the unfeeling scientists who
dared to diminish their favorite member of the solar system.
Has the arcane assignment of scientific nomenclature to natural objects ever
before sparked a firestorm? I can’t think of another instance, although
I admit my limited knowledge of scientific and popular history.
Whether or not you agree with the International Astronomical Union’s
decision that Pluto is not a bona fide planet, you can’t deny that the
debate is good for space exploration. To see sane people grow immoderately
passionate over the scientific term for a ball of rock and ice demonstrates
how deeply they can care about worlds they cannot see, except through the telescopes
and spacecraft built to explore the universe around us.
It’s up to us in The Planetary Society to build this passion into commitment
to explore the worlds around us—including Pluto, planet or not.
--Charlene M. Anderson
Features
Our Adventure With Juno
A few months ago, renowned professor Dave Stevenson contacted us to tell us about an unusual partnership he had recently struck.
For the last few years, Dave, a space science veteran, had been working with
a young protégé still in high school on the upcoming Juno mission
to Jupiter. Written as a dialogue between professor and student, their story
bridges the generations through space exploration.
Out of This World Books
Just in time for the hectic holiday season, we’ve
selected some of our favorite recent books to share with you. From a personal
autobiography from astronaut Tom Jones and a behind-the-scenes look at the Mars
Exploration Rovers mission, to the intimate essays in Dava Sobel’s Planets
and an artful look at a hundred years of space exploration, there is something
for everyone.
SMART-1: Europe at the Moon
In early September, the SMART-1 spacecraft plummeted
into the Moon, leaving a small crater on the surface it had so closely examined
for more than a year. The dramatic end to the mission—actually a controlled
and perfectly timed planned impact into the lunar surface—was a fitting
close for the highly successful mission. Here, SMART-1 project scientist Bernard
Foing shares with us the story of Europe’s first-ever mission to the Moon.
Departments
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