Alan Stern.html



Alan Stern

S. Alan Stern is an American planetary scientist, born 22 November 1957, New Orleans, Louisiana, married (three children). He is the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern was Executive Director of the Southwest Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Division until becoming Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in 2007. He resigned from that position after nearly a year.

Biography

From 1983 to 1991 Stern held positions at the University of Colorado in the Center for Space and Geoscience Policy, the office of the Vice President for Research, and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy. He received his doctorate in 1989. From 1991 to 1994 he was the leader of Southwest Research Institute's Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences group and was Chair of NASA's Outer Planets Science Working Group. From 1994 to 1998 he was the leader of the Geophysical, Astrophysical, and Planetary Science section in Southwest Research Institute's Space Sciences Department, and from 1998 to 2005 he was the Director of the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute. In 1995 he was selected to be a Space Shuttle mission specialist finalist and in 1996 he was a candidate Space Shuttle payload specialist.

His research has focused on studies of our solar system's Kuiper belt and Oort cloud, comets, the satellites of the outer planets, Pluto, and the search for evidence of solar systems around other stars. He has also worked on spacecraft rendezvous theory, terrestrial polar mesospheric clouds, galactic astrophysics, and studies of tenuous satellite atmospheres, including the atmosphere of the Moon.

In 2007, Stern was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

On 27 August 2008 Stern was elected to the Board of Directors of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

NASA Associate Administrator

Stern was appointed NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, essentially NASA's top-ranking official for science, in April 2007.¹ Stern's style was called "hard-charging"² and he pursued a "reform-minded agenda".³ He "made headlines for trying to keep agency missions on schedule and under budget"¹⁴ but faced "internal battles over funding".⁵ He was credited with making "significant changes that have helped restore the importance of science in NASA’s mission."⁶

On 26 March 2008 it was announced that Stern had resigned his position the previous day²³⁷, effective 11 April.⁸ He was replaced by Ed Weiler, who is serving his second stint in the position.⁹¹⁰ The resignation occurred on the same day that NASA Chief Michael Griffin overruled a decrease in funding for the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Odyssey missions that was intended to free up funds needed for the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory.¹¹ NASA officials would neither confirm nor deny a connection between the two events.⁹¹²

Stern told Science magazine that he left to avoid cutting healthy programs and basic research in order to cover cost overruns.⁸ Stern believes that cost overruns in the Mars program should be accommodated from within the Mars program, and not taken from other NASA programs. According to Science, Griffin became upset with Stern for making major decisions without consulting him, while Stern is frustrated by Griffin's refusal to allow him to cut or delay politically sensitive projects. Griffin favors cutting "less popular parts" of the budget, including basic research, and Stern's refusal to do so led to his resignation.⁸

Involvement in planetary classification

Stern has become particularly involved in the debate surrounding the 2006 definition of planet by the IAU. After the IAU's decision was made he was quoted as saying "It's an awful definition; it's sloppy science and it would never pass peer review" and claimed that Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune have not fully cleared their orbital zones¹³ and has stated in his capacity as PI of the New Horizons project that "The New Horizons project [...] will not recognize the IAU's planet definition resolution of August 24, 2006."¹⁴

A 2000 paper by Stern and Levison proposed a system of planet classification that included both the concepts of hydrostatic equilibrium and clearing the neighbourhood used in the new definition,¹⁵ with a proposed classification scheme labelling all sub-stellar objects in hydrostatic equilibrium as "planets" and subclassifying them into "überplanets" and "unterplanets" based on a mathematical analysis of the planet's ability to scatter other objects out of its orbit over a long period of time. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were classified as neighborhood-clearing "überplanets" and Pluto was classified as an "unterplanet." One could take this classification system as planet and dwarf planet, respectively.

Publications

• Stern, S. Alan (1987). The U.S. Space Program After Challenger. New York: Franklin-Watts. ISBN 0-531-10412-5. 
• Stern, S. Alan; Jacqueline Mitton (1997, 2005). Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 3-527-40556-9. 

Edited:

• (1998) in S. Alan Stern: Our Worlds: The Magnetism and Thrill of Planetary Exploration. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521631645. 
• (2000) in S. Alan Stern: Our Universe. Cambridge University Press. 
• (2003) in S. Alan Stern: Worlds Beyond: The Thrill of Planetary Exploration as told by Leading Experts. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521520010. 

References

External links

• Dr. Alan Stern's website at Southwest Research Institute
• Interview with Dr. Alan Stern at AstronomíaOnline.com (Spanish)
• Alan Stern - The Time 100