The Planetary Society's Matt Kaplan Interviews Dr. Rosaly Lopes

One of our readers, Dr. Rosaly Lopes, was interviewed last night by Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society. Rosaly is a world-renowned planetary scientist. Her C.V. ( resume) is some 31 pages long. It includes the papers that she has written, the books that she has written (We have several of her books in our library.), her awards including an Emmy Award, and her other achievements like discovering 71 volcanoes on various planets and moons in the solar system. I regret that there is not a Nobel Prize for planetary scientists. I do not doubt that Rosaly would be a Nobel laureate had such an award existed for scientists in her category. Rosaly began her life in a city that I deeply love-Rio de Janeiro. She was fascinated by the Apollo program. She dreamed of being an astronaut. There were no women astronauts. Then she found the woman who inspired her to pursue a career in space exploration. This lady was NASA worker Poppy Northcott who was right in Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center when all the Apollo missions took place. She was able to meet Poppy many years later: Mat Kaplan, Poppy Northcutt and Rosaly Lopes Mat Kaplan, Poppy Northcutt and Rosaly Lopes Mat Kaplan, Poppy Northcutt and Rosaly Lopes Mat Kaplan, former Apollo Mission Control engineer Poppy Northcutt, and JPL planetary scientist Rosaly Lopes after their conversation at the California Science Center.