Brad Smith
Planetary Exploration Newsletter: “Brad Smith was a pioneer in the exploration of the solar system. He participated in a number of US and international space missions, including Mars Mariners 6 and 7, the Mars Viking mission, the Soviet Vega mission to Halley’s Comet, the Soviet Phobos mission to Mars, and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera team for the Hubble Space Telescope. He was the deputy team leader of the imaging team on the Mariner 9 Mars Orbiter, and was chosen by NASA to lead the camera team on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He co-discovered a circumstellar disk around the nearby star, Beta Pictoris, the first direct evidence of a planetary system beyond our own, and continued these studies as a member of the infrared camera (NICMOS) experiment on the Hubble Space Telescope. For the full obituary and memorial service information, go to: http://shorelips.net/bradsmith The memorial service for Brad will be held from 2 to 5 PM on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Room 308, at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Please RSVP to Amy Phillips (amy_p -at – mac.com). More information will be posted at the above site as it becomes available.”
Brad Smith was one of the stars of the incredible Voyager press conferences that opened our eyes to the outer solar system. His comparison of the appearance of the Jovian moon Io to a pizza sounded unscientific, but captured the open-mouthed wonder and joy of how much new knowledge was streaming down from that marvelous spacecraft.
Brad Smith did so many things for planetary science, in addition to his starring role at Voyager press conferences. He mentored many of the current generation of leaders in the planetary space program, played a leading role in establishing a sound system for planetary nomenclature, and was a fine friend and traveling companion. One of my memories is of being with Brad in Moscow when he had an acute attack of appendicitis. Quite simply, the Soviet health system saved his life. Brad bravely endured care in the Soviet hospital, the same one that had treated Lenin, and recovered to the benefit of us all.