Death of a Iowa Hero
Wed morning, 9 Aug 2006, saw the loss of a pioneer in the US space program. James A. Van Allen PhD, 91, died of heart failure at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA. He was a retired professor & former head of the Physics & Astronomy dept at Iowa. Van Allen was best known for his discovery of what came to be known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts arround Earth.
Dr. Van Allen was born 7 Sept 1914 in Mt. Pleasant IA. In the early 1950s he came to the U of I after an already illustrious career of physics research & rocket development. The most famous rocket of which he was a codeveloper of was the rockoon. This was the combination of a rocket & balloon. He continued to use them after he arrived at Iowa. Using them he found the 1st evidence for the radiation belts arround Earth. With the help of graduate students at Iowa, he developed a cosmic ray experiment that was included on Explorer 1 launched 31 Jan 1958. The info from this & a 2nd experiment on Explorer 3 lead to the discovery of the 1st radiation belt. With the data from Pioneer 3 launched 6 Dec 1958 he was able to discover a 2nd radiation belt. Therse belts were eventually named after him. This work also resulted in his work being the cover story of the 4 May 1959 issue of TIME magazine. He was named as 1 of the 15 TIME men of the year on the 2 Jan 1961 cover.
He continued to be a dedicated teacher & reasearcher who's influence was widely felt in the fields of physics & astronomy. His experiements & those of many of his graduate students were included in many space probes including NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo and Cassini spacecraft. Another Earth orbit satellite known as Hawkeye 1, after Iowa's nickname, was designed & built by the Physics & Astronomy Dept at Iowa. It was launched on 3 June 1974 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It's primary objective was to conduct particles and fields investigations of the polar magnetosphere of the earth. Its secondary missions were to make magnetic field and plasma distribution measurements in the solar wind, and to study Type-3 radio emissions caused by solar electron streams in the interplanetary medium. It returned to Earth 28 April 1978 after 667 orbits. & this is only a part of all he accomplished.
Dr. Van Allen refused to bask in the glory by himself. He always acknowledged the debt to his coworkers & his students who helped him in his research. In an article written for the Annual Review of Earth & Planetary Sciences, #18, 26 Jan 1990 entitled What is A Space Scientist? An Autobiographical Example he stated: "My closest working relationships with students involved ones at the graduate level. The following are those who finished advanced degrees under my guidance. The first date in the parentheses after each name is the date of an M.S. degree, the second of a Ph.D. degree. Some students who did their M.S. work with me later earned a Ph.D. elsewhere or under another advisor at Iowa. Others terminated their graduate work at the M.S. level. Every one was a collaborator in the fullest sense of the word, a fact that is amply represented in authorship or co-authorship of published work." This was followed by a list of 59 students. This is probably his greatest accomplishment. All these scientists are building their work on the shoulders of a giant.
In that article he then went on to say: "In addition, I have benefited by the highly competent efforts of an uncounted number of members of our technical staff of whom the following are representative: William A. Whelpley, Roger F. Randall, Robert B. Brechwald, Evelyn D. Robison, John E. Rogers, Joseph G. Sentinella, Donald C. Enemark, W. Lee Shope, Edmund Freund, and Robert Markee.
Finally and most importantly, I am indebted to my wife of 44 years, Abigail, and our five children who have provided the circumstances under which sustained and intensive professional work has seemed worthwhile." (http://www-pi.physics.uiowa.edu/java/java_conclusion.html)
As a child I was fascinated by the US Space Exploration Program. Any news about space discoveries caught my attention. So, Dr. Van Allen became a hero of mine for all the work he did & discoveries he made. The fact that he was an Iowa boy, doing it here in Iowa only added to my pride & admiration for what he accomplished. He wasn't a fan of manned exploration. He pushed for more unmanned exploration instead. (I somewhat disagreed with him. I want more unmanned programs, but see the need for some human exploration. There are some things that only humans can do.) Fortunately, he was somewhat successful in seeing that more unmanned programs were developed. I never got to meet him & now I never will. Yet, all our lives are so much better because of the work he did & will continue to do through those he taught. Mille Grazie! Dr. Van Allen.
His full obituary can be found at the following page at the Uof I website:
NASA Bio:
Info on the Van Allen Radiation Belts:
posted by Al @ 1:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home