Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

its inception. He was a consultant and advisor to NASA since the 1950s, briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon, and was an experimenter on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to the planets. He helped solve the mysteries of the high temperature of Venus (answer: massive greenhouse effect), the seasonal changes on Mars (answer: windblown dust), and the reddish haze of Titan (answer: complex organic molecules).

For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society (“for his extraordinary contributions to the development of planetary science …. As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates”).

Acknowledgments

Most of the material in this book is new. A number of chapters have evolved from articles first published in Parade magazine, a supplement to the Sunday editions of American newspapers which, with an estimated 80 million readers, may be the most widely read magazine in the world. I am greatly indebted to Walter Anderson, the editor in chief, and David Currier, the executive editor, for their encouragement and editorial wisdom; and to the readers of Parade, whose letters have helped me understand where I have been clear, and where obscure, and how my arguments are received. Portions of other chapters have emerged from articles published in Issues in Science and Technology, Discover, The Planetary Report, Scientific American, and Popular Mechanics.

Aspects of this book have been discussed with a large number of friends and colleagues, whose comments have greatly improved it. Although there are too many to list by name, I would like to express my real gratitude to all of them. I want especially, though, to thank Norman Augustine, Roger Bonnet, Freeman Dyson, Louis Friedman, Everett Gibson, Daniel Goldin, J. Richard Gott III, Andrei Linde, Jon Lomberg, David Morrison, Roald Sagdeev, Steven Soter, Kip Throne, and Frederick Turner for their comments on all or part of the manuscript; Seth Kaufmann, Peter Thomas, and Joshua Grinspoon for their help with tables and graphs; and a brilliant array of astronomical artists, acknowledged at each illustration, who have permitted me to showcase some of their work. Through the generosity of Kathy Hoyt, Al McEwen, and Larry Soderblom, I’ve been able to display some of the exceptional photomosiacs, airbrush maps, and other reductions of NASA images accomplished at the Branch of Astrogeology, U.S. Geological Survey.

I am indebted to Andrea Barnett, Laurel Parker, Jennifer Bland, Loren Mooney, Karenn Gobrecht, Deborah Pearlstein, and the late Eleanor York for their able technical assistance; and to Harry Evans, Walter Weintz, Ann Godoff, Kathy Rosenbloom, Andy Carpenter, Martha Schwartz, and Alan MacRobert on the production end. Beth Tondreau is responsible for much of the design elegance on these pages.

On matters of space policy, I have benefited from discussions with other members of the board of directors of The Planetary Society, especially Bruce Murray, Louis Friedman, Norman Augustine, Joe Ryan, and the late Thomas O. Paine. Devoted to the exploration of the Solar System, the search for extraterrestrial life, and international missions by humans to other worlds, it is the organization that most nearly embodies the perspective of the present book.

Those readers interested in more information on this nonprofit organization, the largest space interest group on Earth, may contact:

THE PLANETARY SOCIETY

65 N. Catalina Avenue

Pasadena, CA91106

Tel.: 1 800–9 WORLDS

As is true of every book I’ve written since 1977, I am more grateful than I can say to Ann Druyan for searching criticism and fundamental contributions both on content and style. In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is still my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie.

References

(a few citations and suggestions for further reading)

Planetary Exploration in General

J. Kelly Beatty and Andrew Chaiken, editors, The New Solar System, third edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan, Astronomy Today (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993).

Esther C. Goddard, editor, The Papers of Robert H. Goddard (New York: McGraw Hill, 1970) (three volumes).

Ronald Greeley, Planetary Landscapes, second edition (New York: Chapman and Hall, 1994).

William J. Kaufmann III, Universe, fourth edition (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1993).

Harry Y. McSween, Jr., Stardust to Planets (New York: St. Martin’s, 1994).

Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann, The Grand Tour: A Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System, revised edition (New York: Workman, 1993).

David Morrison, Exploring Planetary Worlds (New York: Scientific American Books, 1993).

Bruce C. Murray, journey to the Planets (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989).

Jay M. Pasachoff, Astronomy: From Earth to the Universe (New York: Saunders, 1993).

Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980).

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, The Call of the Cosmos (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960) (English translation).

Chapter 3. The great demotions

John D. Barron and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).