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The Planetary Report • July/August 2003
The Journey Begins
On the Cover: On June 10, 2003, Spirit, the first of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, left Earth for its seven-month journey to Mars. These still images were extracted from live video returned by the RocketCam™ onboard imaging systems attached to the Delta II launch vehicle.
Features
6 Mars Looms Large: Bruce Betts reports on how the Society is taking advantage of opportunities Mars is presenting.
12 Searching for Vulcanoids: Dan Durda and his colleagues hunt for the elusive quarry of these objects.
17 Propelling Humans Beyond Earth Orbit: Louis Friedman reports on the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
Departments
3 Members' Dialogue Too Much Mars; Planetary Radio
4 We Make it Happen! SETI@home; Columbia experiment recovered
20 Q&A Why is the Oort Cloud spherical? What causes atmospheric banding in gas giants?
22 Society News Mars Watch 2003, scholarships, and Cosmos-1
The Planetary Report • July/August 2003
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