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James A. Van Allen - Dies at 91

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ironically-wore-suspenders dept.

Diamonddavej writes "The New York Times reports that the respected astrophysicist, James A. Van Allen, died yesterday at the age of 91. Apparently the fellow regularly worked at his office/laboratory up until a month ago. Prof. Van Allen team designed the Geiger counter that flew aboard Americas first orbiting satellite, Explorer 1. It detected unexpectedly intense levels of radiation caused by energetic particles trapped in the Earth magnetic field, the magnetosphere. The belts of radiation were mapped and characterised by later missions and were named the Van Allen belts in honour of their discoverer."

94 comments

  1. Man-Made Equivalent by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    One of the most interesting things about the Van Allen belts is the man made equivalent that remained from nuclear tests in the atmosphere. As the Wikipedia article references, that's what was done in Starfish Prime:
    While some of the energetic beta particles had followed of the earth's magnetic field and illuminated the sky, other high-energy electrons became trapped in man-made radiation belts around the earth. There was much uncertainty and debate about the composition, magnitude, and potential adverse effects from this trapped radiation after the detonation. The weaponeers became quite worried when three satellites in low earth orbit were disabled. These man-made radiation belts eventually crippled one-third of all satellites in low orbit. Seven satellites were destroyed as radiation knocked out their solar arrays or electronics, including the first commercial communication satellite ever, Telstar.
    The full declassified documentation can be found here (PDF warning) and it's effects are listed here. If you want the summation of that report, we basically learned that "Strong electromagnetic signals were observed from the burst, as were significant magnetic field disturbances and earth currents."

    Does setting off an atomic bomb in the atmosphere of your home planet sound like a bad idea to you? Sounds more like the threat of a Bond villain than an action of the United States government. I'm not sure what the motive was for these tests does anyone who knows Van Allen's research have an answer?
    --
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    1. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by shwonline · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Does the Wikipedia article make any reference to Stephen Colbert?

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    2. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sounds more like the threat of a Bond villain than an action of the United States government.

      An increasingly difficult distinction to make...

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    3. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by nappingcracker · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I am not an expert, but I was pretty enamored with the Starfish Prime wikipedia article a few months ago, and I remember thinking the same thing.

      While it may have had a specific purpose, I think the main impetus was "lets see what happens" with specific questions/benefits of:
      -How close to the blast do we(the mil) have to get for the EMP to be an effective weapon
      -How big/how many bombs would we need to charge the atmosphere and fry satellites, and conversely how much do we have to harden our sats?
      -Lets show the world we are bad ass, take that Russia!
      -What do we have to do to get bombs in space? (rocket, trigger, etc, design)
      -Would this be effective against the alien craft we found?

      I had heard some (no not really) WAS (wild-ass-speculation) that the scientists on the manhattan project had some initial concerns of "what if the chain reaction continues, we could destroy the world!", but were obviously calculated and absolved. Kinda like the mini-black hole worries now. Not so much of an end-of-the-world-evil-plot bad idea here, calculated enough that it would not pose any "real" problems. A few flipper babies never hurt.

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      |plastic....or gasoline?|
    4. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by nsayer · · Score: 1
      Does setting off an atomic bomb in the atmosphere of your home planet sound like a bad idea to you?

      Of course it does, now. Hindsight is 20/20. I don't fault them for doing what was necessary to find out that it's a really bad idea.

      If you're suggesting that we should not test new things for fear of unknown environmental impact, then I have a bearskin parka and a cave for you right over there.

    5. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Informative
      Sounds more like the threat of a Bond villain than an action of the United States government.

      Keep in mind, that it was not just the US that was setting off nukes in the open atmosphere. USSR, China (IIRC Britain and France), and now a number of new countries have done so (and I suspect that a few more to come; just not on their soil). No doubt we set off quite a few, but it was about the same number as the USSR. Of course that is why we made a treaty prohibiting open atmosphere testing.

      --
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    6. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by geekoid · · Score: 1

      a cave! no way, they could collapse.
      I'll stay right here in the tree.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by Millenniumman · · Score: 1

      The tree can't collapse?

      --
      Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
    8. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by sholden · · Score: 1

      Unless you consider the International Space Station to orbit in the atmosphere then that particular test wasn't in the atmosphere...

    9. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nah, it's simple.. the Bond villians always want the world leaders to help them reach their goals, aka multilateral cooperation.

      --
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    10. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by stair69 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Though I'm not an expert on the high atmosphere testing that went on at that time from what I've read/heard there did seem to be some method to the madness of setting off nuclear bombs in near orbit.

      I believe that the US military were experimenting with the idea of creating a (hopefully temporary) layer of trapped radiation in the upper atmosphere in order to destroy/disable ICBM missiles aimed at the USA. There were quite a number of tests leading up to Starfish Prime (particularly Operation Argus in the South Atlantic ). One of the key drivers from a military point of view for these tests was to observe the effect of the trapped radiation in the upper atmosphere on incoming dummy missles.

      I don't think that the experiments led to any breakthroughs regarding ballistic missile defence, but there were some interesting discoveries in the science. The effects of EMP from high altitude nuclear detonations weren't fully expected in the first tests (EMP from low altitude tests had been observed before, but in mid altitude testing the EMP was negligable - so significant EMP effect was not expected from high level detonations). The scientists involved in the tests were surprised that Starfish and the other Johnston Island high atmosphere detonations disrupted communications and electronic equipment as much as they did. It turns out that there are two different mechanisms for generating EMP after a nuclear detonation - the one that takes effect at high altitude is the one that causes widespread damage, whereas the low altitude one causes local damage to electronics, but no widespread damage.

      Additionally data regarding the Van Allen belts, trapped radiation from man-made detonations and SAMA (the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly ) came in large part from the Starfish Prime and Argus experiments.

      Today the idea of setting off nuclear bombs in the atmosphere, let alone in the high atmosphere, seems crazy, but these experiments (along with the experiments done by the other countries involved) should be viewed in the context of the era. In the late 50s and early 60s when these tests were performed by the US the fear of nuclear attack was reaching a peak. Experiments of this sort were tolerated because of the potential benefit that could be had by the side carrying them out. If, for example, the US military had found a way to disable ICBMs with high level detonations of nuclear bombs they could have disabled most of the threat to the USA in one stroke. As it was the US military discovered that high altitude detonations caused a long range EMP effect, and that knowledge allowed them to adjust their strategy for nuclear attack/defence.

      For anyone who's interesting in seeing more about these exeriments I would certainly recommend the film The Rainbow Bombs by Peter Kuran. His other films Trinity & Beyond and Atomic Journeys are excellent as well.

    11. Re:Man-Made Equivalent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      In the late 50s and early 60s when these tests were performed by the US the fear of nuclear attack was reaching a peak. Experiments of this sort were tolerated because of the potential benefit that could be had by the side carrying them out. If, for example, the US military had found a way to disable ICBMs with high level detonations of nuclear bombs they could have disabled most of the threat to the USA in one stroke.

      Except that there was no such threat. In fact the Soviets even at the time Kennedy was in power had only one known ICBM silo. That's right: one (1). I remember watching a program on TV where one of the military guys from that period described how they showed Kennedy photos of that same silo taken at different times of the year and day as well as different angles to amass a pile of "evidence" that the Soviet Union was a huge threat and thereby gain the massive budget the military wanted.

      In the 50's the threat of ICBMs was zero, just as in the 80's Rumsfeld was reduced to claiming that the Soviet submarines were invisible. How did he know? Because no one could see them! Again, zero real threat.

      The US military needs a reason to exist and in the absense of one it will invent one or, as in the case of Bin Laden, create one. Peace is the ultimate enemy which must be kept at bay no matter what the financial or human cost. In fact, the bigger the cost the better because it "justifies" a bigger budget.

  2. Ah, we can believe this story . . . by GMontag · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Since it is not being reported by Philip Chien, formerly of Wired so, I suppose, we can believe it . . .

    Ah, it is the New York Times, which is much more accurate than an Examiner story, compare and contrast at the link :)

    --
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    1. Re:Ah, we can believe this story . . . by jnik · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, I'm not sure I believe an obit written by someone who's been dead for a decade, although it is eerily appropriate. Top of page: "By WALTER SULLIVAN Published: August 10, 2006" Bottom of page: "Walter Sullivan, science editor of The New York Times, died in 1996."

      I'm really, really sad I never got the chance to meet Dr. Van Allen; he was my academic grandfather.

    2. Re:Ah, we can believe this story . . . by mikeabbott420 · · Score: 1

      I too was perplexed by that. Was the article stating that Dr Van Allen was working up to a month before his death or a month before Mr Sullivan wrote it? As I get older, and undeniable decay sets in, the idea of Dr Van Allen being active right up to the end is quite comforting. Regardless I am heartened to see you mourn him, arguing for unmanned exploration when he made that argument seems both brave and prescient. Dr Van Allen, a great man who will be remembered.

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  3. Sad news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - respected astrophysicist, James A. Van Allan was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

  4. What respect - at least learn to spell by CorporalKlinger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What respect the author must have for Mr. Van Allen... he can't even spell his name right.

    1. Re:What respect - at least learn to spell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Dr. Van Allen

    2. Re:What respect - at least learn to spell by idlerich · · Score: 1

      Indeed. "The fellow"?

  5. wait a sec... by grub · · Score: 4, Funny


    ... has Netcraft confirmed this?

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    1. Re:wait a sec... by jd · · Score: 1

      Netcraft has indeed confirmed that J.A.V.A. is no longer being interpreted.

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    2. Re:wait a sec... by rk · · Score: 1

      Yes. Netcraft also confirms that he was a truly an American Icon and that there's no denying his contributions to popular culture^W^Wspace science.

  6. Will be remembered for two things by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Interesting
    1. The radiation belts that bear his name
    2. His opposition to manned spaceflight and the lunar missions in particular. He was sure that if men traversed the Van Allen Belts, they would become poisoned by radioactivity and die. If he and Jerome Wiesner had their way, there would have been no manned space program, only robot probes.
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    1. Re:Will be remembered for two things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...until such robot probes, equipped with radiation detectors, would have proven that he was wrong.

    2. Re:Will be remembered for two things by iluvcapra · · Score: 1
      He was sure that if men traversed the Van Allen Belts, they would become poisoned by radioactivity and die. If he and Jerome Wiesner had their way, there would have been no manned space program, only robot probes.

      Total flame: Without acknowledging the accuracy of your "remembrance," imagine how much money we could have saved for a Superconducting Supercollider if we hadn't gone and built a damn space station to help us sort tiny screws in space.

      OT: the new comment system should strip leading blackquote and cite elements from the one-liner preview.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    3. Re:Will be remembered for two things by susano_otter · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, NASA tapped Van Allen to spearhead further research into the belts he had discovered. The result of his further research was the conclusion that organisms could in fact safely traverse the belts. His research was a critical source of information for determining the velocities and trajectories necessary for such safe traversal.

      So while it's true that he initially believe the belts would be impassable, his opinion changed as a result of his own careful study of the belts.

      --

      Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.

    4. Re:Will be remembered for two things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, because pure science deserves every last discretionary dime in the budget. Without defending the lukewarm merits of the space station (although its worth noting that the real targeted contributions to long-duration human spaceflight the ISS could have made were largely crippled in an attempt to appease the scientific community by creating a generic research facility), why is it okay to do pure scientific research for the sake of pure scientific research, but doing engineering research or exploration for the sake of engineering research or exploration is somehow less worthy of the taxpayer's money? I always find this especially amusing when it comes from space scientists, who despite recent NASA cuts, still a) have almost as much money going to them as the entire NSF and b) forget that science is only one of NASA's objectives, as defined by the Space Act, yet feel they should be the final authority on everything NASA does... Science is essential, but it can't be the only thing: the difference between the science that changes the world and the science that remains a laboratory curiosity is engineering that is just as creative as anything a scientist can do, and there's nothing like exploration for serendipity.

    5. Re:Will be remembered for two things by khallow · · Score: 1

      His opposition to manned spaceflight and the lunar missions in particular. He was sure that if men traversed the Van Allen Belts, they would become poisoned by radioactivity and die. If he and Jerome Wiesner had their way, there would have been no manned space program, only robot probes.

      I think his opposition to NASA's manned space program, such as it was, has been exaggerated over recent years. For example, he is asked here whether Spaceship One has possibilities for space science. His answer was that he could not see how a person on a suborbital flight could do more than automated experiments on an unmanned flight. This was spun by the questioner into the claim that he still resists manned space flight.

      My take is that in hindsight, his resistance to NASA's manned space program has been justified. The Saturn rockets, the best vehicles that NASA produced for carrying astronauts, were scuttled long ago and the Shuttle never was not nor never would be properly funded. The International Space Station has turned out to be an extraordinary waste even by NASA standards. And NASA has fumbled and dropped numerous potential replacements for the Shuttle. The only rationalization ever put forth is that somehow these programs expand either our scientific knowledge or test some novel engineering. Needless to say, if that's what you want a manned program for, then you can get the same results for a lot less by going with a far more efficient unmanned program.

      As far as I can tell, he's never been on record as opposing commercial space development.
    6. Re:Will be remembered for two things by khallow · · Score: 1

      Oh come on. The ISS doesn't do anything worthwhile. We already knew that zero-gee was bad for you and a lot of information on how that was so. The engineering in question could be tested without a manned presence and vastly reduce the cost. And we explore nothing with the ISS. The money burned on the ISS could have launched a lot of space probes (hundreds) and actually fulfilled most of NASA's mandates.

    7. Re:Will be remembered for two things by sharp-bang · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Much of his advocacy against manned space exploration stemmed from the political reality that the budget for unmanned scientific missions was repeatedly gutted to pay for manned missions of negligible scientific value. This was certainly the case in the Reagan eighties.

      He also publicly argued, less than a year before the Challenger disaster, that a catastrophic failure of the shuttle was inevitable due to its complexity. As I recall, he was pretty much alone in this at the time. I also recall that the Challenger mission was, in terms of numeric order for all shuttle flights, fairly close to the mean failure rate he calculated.

      Ironically, the parent post and much of this thread neglect the third thing he should be remembered for: he was the godfather of the US space program. The International Geophysical Year international research effort, which began in his living room in 1950, was the key catalyst for obtaining governmental support for space science and led to pretty much everything else that NASA has ever done. Without him, space science might well have been sidlined in favor of militarization instead.

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      #!
    8. Re:Will be remembered for two things by mortonda · · Score: 1
      The radiation belts that bear his name


      I remember seeing an old submarine movie as a kid where the Van Allen belts were on fire.... I think that was the first time I ever heard of them. I'm guessing this is it...
  7. Good week for conspiracy theorists. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Funny

    NASA looses the tapes of the moon landing and Mr. Van Allen passes away. If I remember correctly the Van Allen belts figure prominently in several anti-moon landing conspiracy theories.

    Gentlemen, let the speculation begin!

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    1. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Funny

      The classic...

      Van Allan Belts ... God's Electric Fence

    2. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Conspiracies indeed. Now all the kooks will come out of the woodwork to try and convince us that man actually landed on the moon back in the 1960's. With Van Allen dead, who's to stop them from spreading that Apollo mission foolishness? Now where did I put that tinfoil hat...

    3. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by rivetgeek · · Score: 2, Informative

      One "looses" the hounds. One "loses" their keys. A company who's CEO is found with a dead hooker or a live little boy suffers "losses". Get it right.

    4. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by 6OOOOO · · Score: 1

      A company whose CEO [...]. Get it right.

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    5. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. Because 91 year olds very rarely die of natural causes or anything.... :-)

    6. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently they just found the "Missing Apollo tapes" (Google)

    7. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by rivetgeek · · Score: 1

      doh.

    8. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      It happens to the best of us.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    9. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by rivetgeek · · Score: 1

      yup. no offense meant. but loose/lose is a pet peeve of mine for some OCD reason.

    10. Re:Good week for conspiracy theorists. by Cyno · · Score: 1

      I like this one:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

      I wonder, who's idea was this anyway?

      And the problem with conspiracy theories is some of them might be true.

  8. Was it... by 0racle · · Score: 1

    Radiation poisoning?

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  9. Wikipedia by kevin_conaway · · Score: 2, Funny

    Weird, I didn't know this but according to Wikipedia, the number of Van Allen belts has tripled in the last three months.

    1. Re:Wikipedia by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Well, as long as they don't catch fire.

      Chris Mattern

    2. Re:Wikipedia by dr_dank · · Score: 1

      Weird, I didn't know this but according to Wikipedia, the number of Van Allen belts has tripled in the last three months.

      This has been confirmed using NASA's ****ERIC IS A FAG**** Space Telescope.

      --
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  10. Oh gods... by TwoScoopsOfPig · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Why do the taglines just keep getting worse?
    I draw the line at bad clothing puns.

    Somebody sack the writers.

    -Ed.

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    1. Re:Oh gods... by chphilli · · Score: 1

      Those responsible for sacking the writers have just been sacked.

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  11. He couldnt take the news by Tweekster · · Score: 1

    about Pluto...

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  12. Re:Dammit by WilliamSChips · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Can I ask what the virus is?

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  13. Dr. Van Allen staunch advocate for robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dr. Van Allen was a staunch advocate of planetary exploration with robotic spacecraft and a critic of big-budget programs for human space flight. Describing himself as "a member of the loyal opposition," he argued that space science could be done better and less expensively when left to remote-controlled vehicles.

  14. Fantastic by User+956 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Prof. Van Allen team designed the Geiger counter that flew aboard Americas first orbiting satellite, Explorer 1. It detected unexpectedly intense levels of radiation caused by energetic particles trapped in the Earth magnetic field, the magnetosphere.

    Unfortunately for astronauts Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, NASA hadn't thought to send up an unmanned probe first.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:Fantastic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Unfortunately for astronauts Reed Richards, Susan Richards

      bzzt.... they weren't married yet. Sue was Sue Storms! Damn technies, they get it right for the factual stuff and they really screw it up worst than the media for fiction stuff.

  15. Let this be a lesson by ackthpt · · Score: 1

    Apparently the fellow regularly worked at his office/laboratory up until a month ago.

    Don't retire - You'll die!

    not that i have anything to worry about, to have any kind of retirement i'll be working until i'm 91, too.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Let this be a lesson by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I was thinking exactly the same thing. How many times have I heard of someone retiring and then kicking the bucket within a year? Seems to be a common thing.

    2. Re:Let this be a lesson by ackthpt · · Score: 1

      I was thinking exactly the same thing. How many times have I heard of someone retiring and then kicking the bucket within a year? Seems to be a common thing.

      Seems people lose their purpose in getting up the next morning or sommat. I think Alistair Cooke went something like this. He retired from his Letter From America and other duties and seemed to go in the blink of an eye.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    3. Re:Let this be a lesson by aonifer · · Score: 1

      Technically he retired back in '85, but he went to work nearly every day until about a month ago. I suspect it was his ailing health that kept him at home, rather than vice versa.

  16. Noooooo! by PayPaI · · Score: 0, Troll

    Anyone else misread this as Van Halen?

  17. Re:Dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, you certainly can.

  18. Space Aged by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Space Age" used to mean "so new it's futuristic". Now it's starting to mean "ancient history".

    And all we got is lots more crappy TV.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Space Aged by Enoxice · · Score: 1, Interesting

      People won't care about outer space until we can get a competent group of people to create a space program (here's hoping South Africa http://cooltech.iafrica.com/features/870976.htm) that:

      (a) Doesn't waste all kinds of public funds (1.6bil requested for fy2007 http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/index.html) (b) Isn't surrounded by an aura of bad PR.

      Until either that happens, or NASA pulls off something incredible to regain the respect of millions of people, our feet will be planted firmly on the ground.

      It's a shame, really, I've been hoping to reenact the plotline from Firefly at some point in my lifetime...

      --
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    2. Re:Space Aged by Lithgon · · Score: 1

      ...Rerun Age

    3. Re:Space Aged by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      Heh. I've got somewhere a concert video from Expo '92 in Sevilla (with people like Brian May, Joe Satriani, Joe Walsh), and when it's time for Steve Vai come out and play, Brain May (IIRC) introduces him as "the master of the space-age guitar". I think I actually laughed out the first time I heard it, the term definitely has a different meaning now.

  19. RIP by roman_mir · · Score: 1

    The Soviets once accused the U.S. of creating the inner belt as a result of nuclear testing in Nevada. The U.S. has, likewise, accused the USSR of creating the outer belt through nuclear testing. It is uncertain how particles from such testing could escape the atmosphere and reach the altitudes of the radiation belts. Likewise, it is unclear why, if this is the case, the belts have not weakened since atmospheric testing was banned by treaty. Thomas Gold has argued that the outer belt is left over from the aurora while Dr Alex Dessler has argued that the belt is a result of volcanic activity. - ha-ha. That is quite weak, US and USSR used to be worthy opponents, don't you think so? :)

    --
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    1. Re:RIP by Kiliani · · Score: 2, Informative

      The outer belt contains mostly relativistic electrons, energized in Earth's magnetosphere. The inner belt is made up of relativistic protons, a decay product of cosmic rays (having to do with the fact that a free neutron decays into a proton-electron pair, free neutrons having a half-life of only 11 minutes). See e.g. http://www.oulu.fi/~spaceweb/textbook/radbelts.htm l for a short description.

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  20. Van Allen's Rockoons by kthejoker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The belt and NASA made him famous, but James was doing some crazy stuff with rockets way back when, including the Rockoons, which were rockets launched from high-altitude balloons to gather information, test flight and fuel capacities, etc.

    The Coast Guard let him shoot the Rockoons off the coast towards Greenland. When he first tried them, the rockets refused to fire. So Van Allen took some cans of orange juice, heated them, put them in the gondola next to the rocket, and covered them in insulation.

    Presto. The rockets fired.

    The definition of a great and honorable scientist; inquisitive, intuitive, unpretentious, and brilliant.

    1. Re:Van Allen's Rockoons by nappingcracker · · Score: 1

      So Van Allen took some cans of orange juice, heated them, put them in the gondola next to the rocket, and covered them in insulation.

      Why? To keep the rockets at the proper temperature? (everyone knows its tomato soup that keeps you warm)

      --
      |plastic....or gasoline?|
    2. Re:Van Allen's Rockoons by ch-chuck · · Score: 1, Funny

      The Rockoons - that would be a great name for a rock band!

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
    3. Re:Van Allen's Rockoons by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Funny

      Poor, poor raccoons. Doing that crazy stuff, being shot up in rockets. Did they at least enjoy the orange juice?

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    4. Re:Van Allen's Rockoons by rts008 · · Score: 1

      Yeah,WTF? Are they not good enough for Tang, like human astronauts?
      The ACLU and Humane Society need to set them straight ASAP!
      Sheesh, plain old orange juice!

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    5. Re: Van Allen's Rockoons by gidds · · Score: 1

      Nice idea, but someone's already thought of using that name for an album.

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  21. Van Allen just wasn't the same... by Rotten168 · · Score: 0, Troll

    after David Lee Roth left. ;)

    1. Re:Van Allen just wasn't the same... by systemic+chaos · · Score: 1, Funny

      I challenge your Van Allen Belt to a battle with my Foreigner Belt.

  22. A toast to James... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This belt's for you.

  23. Got lots of coverage in local paper by Sporkinum · · Score: 1

    In today's Cedar Rapids Gazette, the obit was the front page story. Took half the front page, and 2 full pages on the inside. I was really pleased to see such great coverage!

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    1. Re:Got lots of coverage in local paper by Tanmi-Daiow · · Score: 1

      Really? I live in Iowa City and need to look that up. Thanks for the info.

      --
      "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." - C.S. Lewis
  24. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  25. Support of commercial launch services by Baldrson · · Score: 1
    I visited James Van Allen at the University of Iowa physics building during the campaign to require government bureaucracies to purchase launch services from commercial vendors.

    His support was crucial for the passage of the Launch Services Purchase Act of 1990 which, although largely resisted by NASA at the time became a bellweather for future launch service policy.

    PS: I do regret not having mentioned Dr. Van Allen's support during my Congressional testimony.

    --
    Seastead this.
  26. Van Allen Belt by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Only marginally on-topic I know, but speaking of Van Allen:

    Information on physiological effects on humans passing through the Van Allen belt seems to be distinctly lacking.

    Given that at least 29 people are reported to have passed through it during the Apollo programme, I would have thought there would have been extensive tests done both 'live' during flight and upon arrival back on earth. Does anyone know if such studies were done?

    It probably won't shut up any of the moon landing naysayers but would be interesting nonetheless.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  27. was it just me.. by doti · · Score: 1

    that thought it was Eddie at the first glance?

    --
    factor 966971: 966971
    1. Re:was it just me.. by Riktov · · Score: 1

      And he certainly looks close to 91 in this pic:

      http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a c/Eddie_van_halen.jpg/150px-Eddie_van_halen.jpg

  28. The really cool thing about Dr. Van Allen was ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... that he would teach freshman astronomy. He wasn't just a great researcher, he was also a great teacher.

  29. The man by ivarneli · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I worked on the same floor as Van Allen at the University of Iowa when I was an undergraduate. He was quite an amazing guy - even at 90 years old, he still came to his office nearly every day to work on data from Pioneer. I had a number of conversations with him, and he clearly still loved what he was doing.

    My fondest memory of him is when he was presented with an award at Iowa a few years back. The actual award was a glass globe with some intricate internal designs composed of another material. However, the globe was much heavier than it appeared. So he spent the next few minutes explaining to those around him how we could figure out its density using size and mass, and then figure out the internal composition based on that. Then he actually went through the rough calculation and narrowed it down to two or three likely materials. He was well known around the Physics department for his skills as an educator, and I'm glad that I was able to witness a bit of that firsthand.

    Up until a few years ago he was still using an ancient punchcard-based programmable calculator for most of his computations. Van obviously new it was out of date, but he had so much experience with it that he could still use it fairly quickly. He showed me the array of cards he had written over the years for doing things like converting RA/Dec to Az/Alt and performing Newton's method. Around this time, a professor of mine started to teach Van how to use modern programs like Mathcad for doing things like this, and he was very excited and receptive to working in a way that was fairly new to him.

    I know a lot of people who really admired this man, and he's really going to be missed up on the 7th floor.

    1. Re:The man by aonifer · · Score: 1

      I was a grad student there until a couple years ago. He was a really nice guy, and obviously deeply, deeply smart. I saw my first aurora borealis from the roof of Van Allen Hall, which is pretty fitting.

  30. Classic? by mangu · · Score: 1
    The classic...


    Wait... If it's a classic, then it must be when Sammy Agar still played with them, right?

  31. Simpsons Quote by Kohath · · Score: 2, Funny

    Announcer: Astronomers from Tacoma to Vladivostok have just reported an ionic disturbance in the vicinity of the Van Allen Belt. Scientists are recommending that necessary precautions be taken.
    Homer: [scoffs] Eggheads. What do they know?

    snpp

  32. article by Pierre · · Score: 1

    A nice article in the iowa city news paper

    http://presscitizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID= /20060810/NEWS01/608100324/1079

  33. Gemini program by Mark+of+THE+CITY · · Score: 2, Informative

    Michael Collins' memoir, "Carrying the Fire," included a table of radiation exposure for all the manned Gemini flights. Two readings were given; one for the commander, one for the pilot (who on some missions left the spacecraft to do some work outside). Gemini X, on which Collins was pilot, had the highest radiation levels, as their flight went in the South Atlantic magnetic anomoly, and others did not. Both are alive roughly 40 years later, in their mid-70s: not bad.

    --
    The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
  34. another one by Mark+of+THE+CITY · · Score: 1

    http://gazetteonline.com/2006/08/10/Home/News/vana llencoverage.htm

    --
    The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
  35. I think you're mistaken by p3d0 · · Score: 1
    He was sure that if men traversed the Van Allen Belts, they would become poisoned by radioactivity and die.
    Do you have a reference for this? I find it hard to believe he so radically overestimated the damage due to the radiation his own devices had measured.
    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  36. Re: MP3 interview with Van Allen on Exploration by qubezz · · Score: 1

    CBC radio's Quirks and Quarks program had a story on November 19, 2005 on the subject of human exploration vs. robotic probes. It's available at http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/05-06/nov19.html with links to OGG Vorbis and MP3 files of the show. Van Allen was interviewed among others.

    Of particular note, the Bush administration's plan to send astronauts back to the moon, the de-maintaining of Hubble, and the cost of a Mars mission (one manned trip to the moon to look at rocks = 700 mars explorer missions). While the show itself takes a non-editorial stance and finds interviewees on both side of the debate, one can clearly see that Van Allen is no looney, a bright mind even in his 90's.

    One can quickly make the analogies that:

    • Looking Glass : Galileo :: Hubble Space Telescope : 21st century scientists
    • House arrest : Catholic Church :: Fund diversion : evangelical Bush administration
    • Remote sensing probes & space telescope repair : real science investigating cosmology and origin of universe :: human Moon and Mars mission : money wasting diversion from real science, hoping to extend the suspension of disbelief in religion a little longer, by preventing more erosion of the religious god-created, human-centric universe by empirical scientific evidence.
    (reference: http://news.com.com/Hawkings+cosmological+riff/210 0-11395_3-5946857.html

    Program Summary

    The development of new plans for human exploration of the Moon and Mars has raised an old argument again. Should we be sending humans into space? Many scientists have argued that robotic probes, rovers and satellites have produced far more science at a far lower cost than human astronauts. Will this still be the case as we look beyond Earth orbit?

    Space pioneer Dr. James Van Allen, the Regent professor of physics at the University of Iowa, has worked with space probes like the Explorer, Pioneer and Mariner missions since the earliest days of the U.S. space program. In his view, human astronauts are obsolete.

  37. Van Allen did so much more... by Pchelka · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dr. Van Allen made so many more contributions to space science than just his discovery of the radiation belts. He was one of the founding fathers of the field of magnetospheric physics. He was also involved in the first satellite missions to visit Venus and Mars, as well as the Pioneer missions to the outer planets. Much of his opposition to manned space flight was motivated by the success of these early satellite missions and the enormous scientific return from them. He believed that unmanned missions like Pioneer could contribute much more to our scientific knowledge than manned missions. He also argued that unmanned missions were more cost effective than manned missions. For more information, I suggest reading his autobiography.