Sharing the Adventure with the Public The Value and Excitement of 'Grand Questions' of Space Science and Exploration: Summary of a Workshop (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Session 4: Understanding the Solar System: How Did It Begin and How Is It Evolving?
Session 4: Understanding the Solar System: How Did It Begin and How Is It Evolving?
Pages 29-34
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From page 29... ...
Hammel, senior research scientist and co-director of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, joked that she was going to talk about the history of the solar system that preceded the "two seconds" of human evolution that Roger-Maurice Bonnet of the International Space Science Institute talked about in Session 1. Using the Orion nebula as an example of galaxy formation, she showed many images to explain how galaxies evolve and planets form from protoplanetary disks, or proplyds, which are nascent solar systems.
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From page 30... ...
Everything she learned in graduate school about planetary formation, she said, is "out the window." So the question is how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Hammel showed a series of seven slides that explained the current theory of how solar systems form, starting with a collapsing cloud of gas and dust that forms a star, leading to clumps of dust grains sticking together and getting angular momentum that turn them into disks that grow into planestismals that stick together and become protoplanets that collide with one another to form planets and then gas attaches to the larger ones.
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From page 31... ...
Comets crashing into other bodies move water around in the solar system, Hammel continued, and there is water on several solar system bodies. NASA's Phoenix lander exposed ice on Mars, there is water on the Moon, scientists believe there is a liquid water ocean under the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's moon Enceladus has water "spewing out of .
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From page 32... ...
In terms of engaging the public with exploration, Stone recounted how in 1973 he was at a press conference at NASA's Ames Research Center about the Pioneer 10 mission, and reporters were very interested in what was being learned. So when he was working on the Voyager mission, he decided JPL should help reporters tell the story as the spacecraft reached Jupiter in 1979.
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From page 33... ...
AUDIENCE INTERACTION Woodward asked the members of audience their views about whether robotic exploration is an investment, or if human spaceflight exploration is a complement to robotic exploration, or "should we send the astronauts." An audience member proposed that a long-term goal such as an independent colony off of Earth in space should be established and then intermediate human spaceflight goals could be established. Scheufele responded that he does not believe the public agrees that there is an intrinsic value to science, but rather that it is driven by global competitiveness.
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From page 34... ...
More missions are needed, but "we can't do everything, you have to make choices," and that is the task of the ongoing National Research Council Planetary Science Decadal Survey. An audience member asked about how to take the public "along for the ride." Woodward replied that most people who buy a ticket for a ride want a destination and to answer a question on the journey.
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