“I’m saddened to listen to this information of Ed Stone’s passing, but in addition grateful to have crossed paths and shared some orbits of the Solar with such a preeminent, impactful, and sort planetary science colleague.
I first encountered Ed at JPL throughout the Voyager Uranus and Neptune flybys within the Nineteen Eighties, once I was working as a scholar for a member of the Voyager Imaging Workforce. I used to be instantly impressed by his calm and collegial demeanor throughout the intense and hectic instances across the flybys, in addition to his clear and conversational type with the worldwide media highlight overlaying Voyager. I used to be additionally impressed that he fortunately tolerated and even typically interacted with our small gang of scholars hanging out within the Imaging Workforce rooms at JPL in order that we might witness the flybys first-hand (there was no web!)
Later, I had the pleasure of really attending to know Ed when he supplied, over a number of years, quite a few interviews and evaluations of fabric for my ebook, “The Interstellar Age.” Ed’s cheerful and selfless steerage was essential as I struggled to grasp and translate the esoteric ideas of Voyager’s interplanetary and interstellar fields and particles analysis into frequent language.
Ed was a consummate scientist, instrument and mission crew chief, and public communicator. He was additionally an amazing good friend of The Planetary Society. He shall be tremendously missed as a mentor and colleague in our neighborhood.”
—Jim Bell, Secretary and Previous President of The Planetary Society’s Board of Administrators, Professor on the Faculty of Earth and House Exploration at Arizona State College, and Principal Investigator for NASA’s Perseverance rover Mastcam-Z devices
