Why do you focus on the solar system’s small, low-profile bodies? Why not big-ticket items like Mars?
S: The smaller objects are big-ticket items! Understanding the architecture of our solar system is a pretty big-ticket item. Discovering whether or not there is an asteroid belt interior to Mercury’s orbit, finding out whether or not the comets were crucial to the formation to life on Earth, doing the first mission to the last planet, Pluto—I consider these all big-ticket items. Just because Pluto or comets aren’t as big as Jupiter doesn’t mean they are not scientifically important—indeed, just the reverse is often true. Sometimes great things come in small packages.
But, honestly, the public just isn’t that interested in comets or the Kuiper belt. Most people have never heard of vulcanoids.
S: I think you’re right about the vulcanoids, but there are a lot of things people have never heard of that eventually come to be very important. Six hundred years ago, most people never heard of North America. Being a researcher doesn’t mean that you follow what is publicly appealing, because public interest generally lags scientific understanding. It’s our responsibility as research explorers to find out the lay of the land, not to follow a popularity contest about where our research should go.
What’s the most important thing about astronomy that everyone should know but don’t?
S: I’d say how ancient virtually everything is in space. Almost all of the galaxies, the stars, the planets, are billions of years old—a million times older than the Parthenon, and tens of millions of times older than the oldest human being who has ever lived. To me, that really puts a lot of things that happen in day-to-day life, or the news, in perspective. No matter how old you are, it makes you feel young. And—perhaps this is the best part—it makes you realize how audacious we are as a species that was “born yesterday” to think we can understand the universe!
What are we learning about comets?
S: Comets are very important in terms of the hazard they pose to Earth’s ecosystems over geological time, and they’re the best samples we have of the primordial material that formed the solar system. We know that comets bombarded Earth after its formation, and they brought a lot of water and more complex stuff to the young planet. Although I personally discount it, it is entirely possible that comets actually brought life to Earth—microspores or something from other systems where life had evolved. We won’t know until we bring back samples.
Many researchers who work on unmanned space projects take issue with all the money that goes into manned missions. You’ve worked both sides of the street. What’s your take?
S: NASA’s human exploration program did historic, even epic, things in the 1960s and early 1970s, but it has been on a leash ever since. We have the capability to do so much more, to do real geological field exploration of the moon and the asteroids and field expeditions to Mars. Instead, for the past three decades we’ve been relegated to nothing more than trips to low Earth orbit in space shuttles and a space station going around in circles growing plants and taking pictures of the weather. I hope that will change soon.
Why aren’t we doing more?
S: The political will hasn’t been there, and it’s so unfortunate. I think human beings are truly explorers at heart. The planets are the obvious next frontiers for human exploration. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t have a significant number of people living and working on the moon, doing geological studies of asteroids and pioneering the path to Mars. The technology is well in hand.
You’re not concerned about the dangers?
S: Of course I am, but danger is an integral part of true exploration. If you’ve ever been around aerospace vehicles, you know that a human being can get hurt in those big machines. Explorers 500 years ago faced a similar question: Is it too risky to sail to some unknown land in a rickety boat at the mercy of the wind? But look at what those daring explorations brought us in terms of the changes to the world. To be a great nation in the 21st century, the United States needs to explore the space frontier. If we choose this course, the road will be long and hard—and yes, dangerous. But so were the frontiers that this great nation took as previous challenges during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We should make a lasting commitment to the exploration of the moon and planets by both brave humans and sophisticated robots. We should inspire the world, and we should make history again. It’s something America does extremely well.
If you could go anywhere in the solar system for one week, where would you go?
S: I’d like to spend a week exploring Neptune’s giant moon, Triton. The Neptunian system is a scientist’s playground. Triton seems to be geologically active like there’s no tomorrow, even though it’s only 40 degrees above absolute zero there. To conduct a field operation on Triton would be beyond my wildest imagination.
