How
a NASA scientist blew all of our minds
On a
visit to The Colbert Report in 2013, the eponymous host asked NASA
scientist Ed Stone if he ever got annoyed that the agency’s astronauts received
all the parades and fanfare, while researchers toiled behind the scenes.
“No,”
Stone responded, “we’re having too much fun.”
Indeed,
Stone served as the head scientist for the space agency’s Voyager mission, which sent two
spacecraft on humanity’s longest, farthest, and still ongoing exploration
endeavor, for half a century, from 1972 until 2022. This mission beamed
back astonishing and never-before-seen views of our solar system. It was also the first mission to fly by all
four mysterious outer planets, the first to discover many moons around each of
these planets, the first to find active volcanoes on
another world, and much more. Eventually, both Voyager craft became the first
to leave our cosmic neighborhood, entering the realm between the stars.
The
legendary researcher died at age 88 on June 9, 2024. But his inspired vision, to both
scientists and children looking up from our perch in the Milky Way galaxy, is immortal.
“He
will forever be an inspiration to all who #DareMightyThings,” NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the interstellar mission, wrote
online.
SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed
first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.
Stone
realized that Voyager’s discoveries needed to reach the millions beyond the
gates of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, rather than sitting in a room as
scientists slowly dissected the findings. The space agency
would receive new imagery in the afternoon, from the likes of Jupiter or Neptune, and Voyager’s science team would rapidly
discuss, and choose, the best discoveries to present to a curious public.
“Dr. Stone,
you are my hero, too.”
“The
scientists would then hone their presentations that evening and even overnight
— with Stone often pressing them to come up with analogies that would make the
material more approachable for a lay audience — while a graphics team worked on
putting together supporting images,” NASA explained in a statement.
“RIP
Ed Stone, long-time leader of the Voyager mission. I learned so much from him
during the Neptune encounter: both how to maximize science and how to share
science with the world,” Heidi B. Hammel, a NASA planetary astronomer and
award-winning science communicator, wrote on the website X (formerly Twitter).
Hammel, who helped Voyager 2 capture the first views of Neptune in 1989, now
researches the origins of life as a leading scientist on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope mission.
Hiro
Ono, today a NASA roboticist, shared online that Voyager 2’s journey
past Neptune stoked his deep interest in exploring the cosmos. “I was 6
years old when Voyager 2 encountered Neptune,” Hiro emailed Stone in 2018.
“Since then, my dream has been to build a spacecraft like Voyager. 24
years later, I proudly joined JPL. Now I am working on Mars 2020 Rover and
Europa Lander. Every day is so exciting.”
“Voyager
2 is my hero who showed me the way,” Ono added. “Dr. Stone, you are
my hero, too. Thank you very much.”
Stone,
a busy project scientist leading the agency’s confirmation that Voyager 2 had
made the grand leap into interstellar space, found time to respond:
The
year after journeying to Neptune, the Voyager team made plans to capture an
unprecedented “family portrait” of the planets, including Earth, at a time when Voyager was some 4 billion miles away.
“This is not just the first time, but perhaps the only time for decades
that we’ll be able to take a picture of the planets from outside the solar
system,” Stone said at the time.
Today,
Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away, and Voyager 2 well over 12 billion
miles away. They will eventually run out of nuclear power — perhaps in the
mid-2030s — but the mission will continue on as our “silent
ambassador” in the cosmos, Stone told Colbert. Both Voyagers carry a
12-inch protected record, containing the diverse sounds and images of Earth.
Whether
or not anyone ever listens, the Stone-led mission will have a long-lived
legacy, well beyond our solar system.
“These
two spacecraft now will be in orbit around the center of our galaxy for
billions of years,” he said.