The Planetary Report • July/August 2003

The Journey Begins

On the Cover: On June 10, 2003, Spirit, the first of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, left Earth for its seven-month journey to Mars. These still images were extracted from live video returned by the RocketCam™ onboard imaging systems attached to the Delta II launch vehicle.

Features

6 Mars Looms Large: Bruce Betts reports on how the Society is taking advantage of opportunities Mars is presenting.

12 Searching for Vulcanoids: Dan Durda and his colleagues hunt for the elusive quarry of these objects.

17 Propelling Humans Beyond Earth Orbit: Louis Friedman reports on the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

Departments

3 Members' Dialogue Too Much Mars; Planetary Radio

4 We Make it Happen! SETI@home; Columbia experiment recovered

20 Q&A Why is the Oort Cloud spherical? What causes atmospheric banding in gas giants?

22 Society News Mars Watch 2003, scholarships, and Cosmos-1

The Planetary Report • July/August 2003

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