The Pioneering Physicist and Caltech School Member Was the Challenge Scientist for the Voyager Program for 50 Years
The Nationwide House Society mourns the passing of Dr. Ed Stone on the age of 88. Stone was an icon at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the place he labored for properly over half a century after becoming a member of the school at Caltech in 1967 (Caltech manages JPL for NASA). His background in physics and astrophysics propelled him to chairing the Division of Physics, Arithmetic, and Astronomy at Caltech from 1983 via 1988 and performing because the Director of JPL from 1991 via 2001. Stone is probably finest identified for his work on the Voyager program, for which he was the challenge scientist from 1972 till 2022 when he retired from the submit after 50 years.
“Ed Stone was a pioneer of the outer photo voltaic system,” stated Karlton Johnson, CEO of the Nationwide House Society. “His contributions to the Voyager program and our understanding of the outer photo voltaic system defy description for his or her immense significance. If our future in area is constructed on the shoulders of giants, he’s one in all them. Godspeed, Dr. Stone.” The Voyager staff was awarded the NSS’s House Pioneer Award for his or her a long time of labor on this groundbreaking challenge.
Stone reworked the best way science from robotic area probes was disseminated to the general public. Moderately than permitting discoveries to languish till they underwent formal peer assessment, as had been the customized, Stone elected to take the outcomes of the day, assessment it along with his science groups, and launch them to the media the next morning. This speedy public disclosure could also be one in all his most lasting imprints on area science. It was one of many many elements of the Voyager program that saved public curiosity excessive via at present.
Stone was concerned in quite a lot of different tasks at NASA starting with the Discoverer satellites within the early Nineteen Sixties. Later, throughout his tenure as JPL’s director, profitable missions akin to Mars Pathfinder, Mars International Surveyor, Deep House 1, and TOPEX/Poseidon have been undertaken, in addition to the launches of the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Stardust mission, and Mars Odyssey.
Dr. Laurie Leshin, the present Director of JPL and Vice President of Caltech, commented: “Ed shall be remembered as an lively chief and scientist who expanded our data concerning the universe—from the solar to the planets to distant stars—and sparked our collective imaginations concerning the mysteries and wonders of deep area.”
Whereas the quite a few missions he was concerned with returned huge quantities of science, Voyager stands out as a scientific goldmine. The dual spacecraft revealed the primary energetic volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io and an environment wealthy with natural molecules on Saturn’s moon Titan. Voyager 2 additionally stays the one spacecraft to fly previous Uranus and Neptune, revealing Uranus’ uncommon tipped magnetic poles and the icy geysers erupting from Neptune’s moon Triton. Voyager 1 was additionally the primary spacecraft to exit the photo voltaic system in 2012, revealing many secrets and techniques of interstellar area.
“Throughout my time at JPL, I had the privilege of moderating a panel with Dr. Stone,” stated Rod Pyle, Editor-in-Chief of the NSS quarterly journal, Advert Astra. “He was an eloquent and interesting speaker and was at all times gracious in sharing his huge data of the outer photo voltaic system with the general public. The trajectories of numerous younger folks’s careers have been modified as a result of this inspiration.”
