Posted on 08/09/2006 9:32:06 AM PDT by Borges
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Physicist James A. Van Allen, a leader in space exploration who discovered the radiation belts surrounding the earth that now bear his name, died Wednesday. He was 91.
The University of Iowa, where he taught for years, announced the death in a statement on its Web site.
Van Allen gained global attention in the late 1950s when instruments he designed and placed aboard the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, discovered the bands of intense radiation that surround the earth.
The bands later named in his honor and spawned a whole new field of research known as magnetospheric physics, an area of study that now involves more than 1,000 investigators in more than 20 countries.
The discovery also propelled the United States in its space exploration race with the Soviet Union and prompted Time magazine to put Van Allen on the cover of its May 4, 1959, issue.
Even though he retired from full-time teaching in 1985, Van Allen continued to monitor data gathered by other satellites and served as an interdisciplinary scientist for the Galileo spacecraft, which reached Jupiter in 1995.
"Jim Van Allen was a good friend of our family. His loss saddens Christie and me," Gov. Tom Vilsack said. "His passing is a sad day for science in America and the world.
I propose we all knock back a belt in his honor tonight :) Rest In Peace.
And still the nature of why the radiation belt is present is not well understood.
It's a shame the Van Allen name will be forever connected with that monument to institutionalized commie-liberalism.
I wonder if we will ever discover the radiation suspenders?
My brother taught there for some times and ran into him a few times.
Modern science stands on the shoulders of guys like Van Allen...RIP, sir. Ur immortality is already established.
The first time I ever heard of the Van Allen Belt was when I saw a movie about a nuclear submarine on some mission to keep the belt from disentegrating, or something like that. I think that was in the early to mid-60's.
That would be Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The sub was The Seaview and it launched nuclear weapons to extiguish the fire consuming the Van Allen belt. The Seaview would then go on to televesion where it would fight against seamonsters that were actually actors in rubber suits pulling double duty from Lost in Space.
Hope he remembered to genuflect.
aLGORE knows why it there. Global warming. He invented it.
The film was on the retroplex channel just yesterday morning, in fact.
15 January 2004Right on.
Famed Iowa space expert opposes Bush space plan
By Patrick Condon,
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-01-13-rise-robots_x.htm
DES MOINES — An Iowa physicist considered to be one of the founding fathers of space exploration opposes Bush administration plans for a space station on the moon and a manned mission to Mars.James Van Allen, the namesake for the Van Allen Belts of intense radiation that encircle the earth, said Monday that such manned space missions have become too expensive and better results can be gained by robotic spacecraft.
"I'm quite unimpressed by any arguments for it," Van Allen, 89, said in an interview from his office at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
"I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results," he said.
One of the great minds of this era. What he was doing at the U of I I can't fathom. His talents would have been better used at Iowa State.
Yes, Walter Pidgeon was the captain of the sub in that movie, which was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (the late and very great actor Richard Basehart took his place in the tv series); I remember Pidgeon in the movie yelling about the Van Allen Radiation Belts and some horrible danger they posed.
R.I.P., Van Allen!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.