My First Planetary Science Trip

Saturn, as seen by Voyager 2, on August 25, 1981.

Back in August, 1981 I took a trip out to California to be at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to watch and learn as the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn (and various moons and rings). It was a pretty major event in my life; it's what turned me toward a life of science writing. I was working at The Denver Post at the time, and had talked the managing editor into letting me go out and cover the event (even though I was a newly fledged editorial assistant at the time). I think I must have told him that I'd represent the paper well, because he handed me an accreditation letter, patted my hand (which was sort of the editorial equivalent of chucking me under the chin, I guess), and told me to go out and have a good time.

A week or so later, I landed in Los Angeles, and proceeded to have the time of my life. JPL was sort of a "Holy Grail" site for me. I remembered reading about it during the Moon and Mars missions, so I couldn't wait to get there and start watching planetary scientists in action.

So, there I was at JPL's von Karman Auditorium and press site, with a desk and phone and press credentials, watching as folks like Carl Sagan (one of the people who showed me that science writing could be fun) would walk by, visiting with the press or talking with fellow scientists about what they'd seen so far.

Many of the press folk attending the week's press conferences were experienced science reporters. A few, like Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope, the folks from Astronomy Magazine, myself, and others, had some astronomy and/or planetary science background. In fact, some were SO experienced that they could make some initial science diagnoses about the pictures at about the same time the scientists themselves were figuring just what the heck we were seeing in the images. The image interpretations (called "instant science") were flowing freely, and the many successful press attempts to figure out the images led one scientist to dub the science press as the "von Karman imaging team" as a sort of tribute to our interest and expertise.

One of the most enduring memories I have of that week (and there are many!) is the evening that images from the moon Enceladus were due to come in. It also happened to be the night that Ted Koppel was going to broadcast "Nightline" live from the von Karman Auditorium at JPL. The press rooms were crawling with several hundred print and TV journalists from around the world, and most of them worked diligently during the day to get their stories filed by late afternoon. By evening all of us who weren't on TV would sit around and watch the TV folks from the east coast do their standups and live interviews. That is, when we weren't glued to the closed-circuit TVs around the place that showed a constant stream of images from Voyager 2.

Anyway, that night, we were watching as Ted put on his makeup and his entourage of directors and camera people bustled around getting things set up. Just as Ted and the bunch were about to go live with their broadcast, images of Enceladus started streaming onto the monitors. Immediately we were all drawn to them, and a bunch of us were clustered around one of the monitors (the von Karman imaging team AND Voyager imaging scientists who happened to be nearby) arguing over just what the strange markings on the moon's surface could mean. It was a free-for-all of image interpretation, planetary science "jousting" and pure astonishment at the amazing level of detail we could make out in the images. I remember standing next to Brad Smith, who was one of the Voyager planetary science team members, listening to him describe the processes that could have formed those strange cracks on the surface.

Well, we'd pretty much forgotten about the "Nightline" folks in our frenzy to look at the images. Not that they cared about us print folks. But, they DID care about having a quiet set, and apparently we were interfering pretty badly with Ted's opening monologue. One of his assistants came over, huffy and waving papers and hissing at us to keep it down.

We did, for awhile. But, as the pictures kept streaming down, our excited discussions got pretty loud again. At one point, Ted chuckled and said that the excitement level was quite high, one of the major understatements in the history of press conferences.

It's amazing to realize that 26 years have gone by since that wonderful, exciting week. I, of course, haven't aged a bit, although my science writing has steadily improved over the years. That visit to JPL is, as I said, what launched me as "TheSpacewriter" (although, at the time, I wasn't quite so audacious as to call myself that), and eventually sparked my interest in going back to school to study more astronomy and planetary science. And, another degree, a couple of major science research projects, some books, a magazine editorship, a bunch of planetarium shows and documentaries, a major science exhibit project, an upcoming vodcast series, and countless other projects later, here I am looking back with great fondness on the mission that set me on my way. So, here's a tip of the ol' scan platform to Voyager 2 and the planet Saturn for being there at the beginning of my own trajectory into astronomy and planetary science!

Labels: Saturn, science writing, voyager 2

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