Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - A Martian Birthday Party for Ray Bradbury

Episode Date: August 25, 2003

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This is Planetary Radio. Benford. We've bumped into each other, I guess, for the last 30 years. You may dimly remember I'm a professor of physics at UC Irvine, and I've introduced you down there to enormous crowds several times. Scientists often get bogged down in the details, but you've always had the gift to look above the heads of the throng of detail and see the long perspectives. And everything you've written still applies to the future we're all still trying to bring about. After all, we haven't walked on Mars yet. And on this birthday, I certainly wish you long life, and let's see some more work. Thanks so much, and happy birthday.

And thank you, Greg Benford, for helping us get a very special edition of Planetary Radio underway. Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Kaplan. You're going to hear many more birthday wishes for the man who may be the world's most beloved science fiction writer. How fitting that the author, who took us to Mars years ago, should have a birthday just as that planet comes closer to Earth than it has in more than 60 millennia. The Planetary Society decided to throw a little party for Ray Bradbury. More than a hundred friends and admirers showed up at the Society's headquarters. Others, whose names you'll recognize, sent their greetings to Ray.

After several hours of celebration in Pasadena, the party moved up one mile to the top of Mount Wilson, even closer to the red planet. Join us as we honor Mr. Bradbury. Later we'll tell you how you can still get your own birthday message to Ray. It began at summer twilight on an outdoor stage with the Society's Executive Director, Lou Friedman. We are pleased to be hosting this Mars Day and Mars Watch and Mars Week, if you will, with all these exciting events with Ray and celebrating his birthday. Ray has inspired us so about the ideas of exploration and discovery. I was giving a number of interviews, Ray, before you got here,

before you got here, and everybody was asking about these connections, what you've meant to Mars exploration. I allowed that sometimes you got the facts wrong, but you never got the idea wrong. We're deeply honored that we can be part of your birthday celebration and deeply honored that you could come with us. Our own Bruce Betts then took the stage. The Society's Director of Projects put the event in perspective. I just want to tell you a little bit about where this fits in a really big year for the Planetary Society having to do with Mars.

This is one of our highlight events. We also have a lot of other things going on, though. Mars Watch 2003 is an umbrella that the Planetary Society has created over over 250 events around the world, most of which are happening in the next week or two, tied to this closest approach to Mars in 60,000 years. We have declared August 27th as Mars Day, the true closest approach time. All of these things in an effort to utilize this exciting time, this exciting closest approach to Mars,

five spacecraft on their way to Mars, two spacecraft there, use this time to actually get people really excited about Mars, including those who don't usually think about it, which of course is most of the world. But we're hoping to change that. You won't be surprised to hear that some of Ray Bradbury's admirers are pretty famous themselves. One of them is Peter Hyams. Hyams is putting the finishing touches on a feature film production of one of Ray's most beloved stories, A Sound of Thunder, should be in theaters next spring.

Director and writer Hyams brought his own birthday wishes to the stage, along with a few thousand others. By the way, it may be useful to know that movie star Angie Dickinson was in the audience. You'll see what I mean. I would first like to thank the Planetary Society, not only for arranging this tribute to our national treasure, but also for making the whole notion of space exploration so exciting and so accessible to so many people. I would like to read a few of these greetings. They're from people you might have heard of.

Warmer's birthday wishes and light speed to a true American icon, a visionary, and a genius. You are the rarest of gems, Ray, and it has been one of my great privileges to know you. Buzz Aldrin. Isn't it fitting that Mars should be so close to Earth for your 83rd birthday? You've been an inspiration to us all. Happy birthday, George Lucas. Some time ago, I had the good fortune to be seated next to Ray Bradbury on a flight from Los Angeles to Texas. I have never flown so high since or been so lucky since. What a ride. You are a joy and a genius. You are my kind of guy,

and I love you. Angie Dickinson. Now, on a less celestial note, whatever people see or find in any planet, they will never find or see a better pair of legs than Angie Dickinson. You showed us that Mars is not only a place for science, but a place of wonder and of dreams that would call to our hearts even after we Earthlings become the Martians. Happy birthday, Ray. Michael and Denise Okuda from Star Trek. Even in this time of everyday wonders,

I still dream of the silver rockets of my youth, kept eternally alive in the imagination by your wondrous prose. Thank you for opening that window in my mind. My best wishes to you for a happy birthday and the continued birth of your glorious dreams, James Cameron. Fahrenheit 451 is a temperature which will burn flesh. However, it's not nearly as hot as its author. Ray, what did you do on this plane ride? You have engulfed us with oh so many other classics, but Ray, you're not just an author, you are an institution. I love Bradbury the man, the artist, the visionary sand as a fledgling sci-fi author.

I am so very proud to have lived in your shadow, Nichelle Nichols. Happy birthday to our dear good friend Ray, a true creative genius. Love, Charlton and Lydia Heston. The many writers you've inspired are indeed your children, and though the first human to land on Mars might not be named Nathaniel York, that person will be your child too. Happy birthday, Judy and Gar Reeve Stevens.

You have always been a ray of light and a hope in a world often absent of imagination. You challenge our linear thinking, and for those of us who have lived out of the box, what first got us there can often be traced to your long and short works of science fiction and fantasy. Happy birthday. Love, Steven Spielberg.

Lastly is mine, which was, Ray, you are the master. You are the source. I have had no greater honor or privilege than spending time with you and bringing your breathtaking imagination to the screen. Keep eating steak and drinking wine for lunch. It seems to work. Happy birthday. Film director Peter Hyams speaking at the Planetary Society's birthday celebration for Ray Bradbury. We'll hear from Ray himself after a break.

First, though, here's yet another message from one of Ray's fans, someone who knows as much about the real Mars as anyone alive. Happy birthday, Ray. This is Chris McKay up at NASA Ames. I've always been a big fan of your writing. I'm a big fan of Mars. I'm also happy to see, of course, that the planet is coming in this month to celebrate your birthday as well. Maybe someday we'll have humans on Mars and they'll look back and be able to wave to us on these times when Mars comes close to Earth. Anyway, happy birthday. Thoughts of Mars and water and life and humans going there. This is Buzz Aldrin.

When I walked on the moon, I knew it was just the beginning of humankind's great adventure in the solar system. That's why I'm a member of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group. The Planetary Society is helping to explore Mars. We're tracking near-Earth asteroids and comets. We sponsor the search for life on other worlds, and we're building the first-ever solar sail. You can learn about these adventures and exciting new discoveries from space exploration in the Planetary Report. The Planetary Report is the Society's full-color magazine. It's just one of many member benefits.

You can learn more by calling 1-877-PLANETS. That's toll-free, 1-877-752-6387. And you can catch up on space exploration news and developments at our exciting and informative website, PlanetarySociety.org. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. Ray, it's your fellow graduate from L.A. High School, Los Angeles High School, David Bren, along with Stephen Barnes, also from L.A. High,

wishing our fellow alumnus all the best wishes on his wonderful, wonderful birthday. You're the guy who made this century happen, Ray. You're the guy who inspired us. I'm known as a bit of an optimist. In fact, I'm known as a preacher of optimism in an age of cynicism. And you just make me look like a dour cynic.

I have never seen a stem-winding speech like the one you always give about what a treason it is to this wonderful era and to our grandchildren to give up or to think that these are bad times. You're the guy, you're the guy who's held forth that these are times worth defending and that the future is worthwhile. And God bless you, and you keep at it. We're back with our special Planetary Radio coverage of a celebration for Ray Bradbury.

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of Ray's literary children. This past Planetary Radio guest wrote the monumental Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy. His most recent work is The Years of Rice and Salt. Robinson just couldn't miss the chance to finally meet one of his idols. By coincidence, I suppose, I was born in the same town that he was, Waukegan, Illinois. It's always been an important fact to me as an American science fiction writer. I've always felt a strong affinity for his work. So I've made attempts to meet him before, but in fact, I mean, I've seen him speak before.

He's been wonderful, but I've never had the chance to actually say hello. And recently wrote an introduction to the Martian Chronicles and realized again what a wonderful book that was. Between Waukegan and Southern California and Mars, I feel like he's some kind of a spiritual godfather, and I want to meet him, so this is my chance. What was your first Bradbury experience? I think it was the reading of a short story about Ernest Hemingway,

a beautiful, interesting, and disturbing story in which Hemingway was wishing that he had actually been killed in the plane crash that he almost died in in Africa in 1956 so that he wouldn't become suicidal in 1961. An odd entry to Bradbury compared to some, but it just was how I first stumbled across him as a high school student. And then I started reading his short stories, and like most American science fiction writers, I've read a great deal of his work.

You heard some tributes from some of your colleagues tonight, at least recorded ones. And there are others that are on the big card that was made for Ray. And yet some people say, well, yeah, he writes science fiction, but he also does more than that. And you're kind of in that boat, too, I would say, with Years of Rice and Salt. Well, I think the important thing is that he does do more than that and has always been accepted as a major figure in American literature and then has gone out and been the ambassador to the world for American science fiction. He's never renounced it. He's always embraced it.

He's always talked about its importance. There are a number of writers, not of his stature, who having been accepted by the larger literary world have then renounced science fiction, and he's never been one of those. So there's a natural affection amongst the science fiction writers

that have come after him for his advocacy of our genre, the way that he always has stood up for us. You've got to love him for that. I love him for that. You got to say hi to him just a moment ago? Yes, I did. It was great. It's clear that he did indeed read my little introduction to the Martian Chronicles so that he knew who I was. I wasn't really expecting that he had read my work,

but since this was directly relevant, it was something so that he knew who I was. And then it was fun to be able to tell him about my birthplace being the same as his because it brought another connection in to talk about because I actually came from the next town to the north, which was Zion, Illinois, a kind of religious utopia. And he knew all about that, which was Zion, Illinois, a kind of religious utopia. And he knew all about that, and it was wonderful, actually,

to hear his fairly detailed knowledge of a town that nobody else in the world knows about. So it's nice. I mentioned Years of Rice and Salt. Is that the latest work people should be looking for? I see it's in paperback now. Yeah, that's the one that's in paperback now, and there's nothing that will come out of it for another year or so, so that's the one to look for, yeah.

Okay, so you continue to walk in, if not in the footsteps, at least close behind. Well, I would hope so. I think about the sequence. Born in Waukegan, moved to Southern California, became an enduring part of American literature. I'd be very happy to follow those footsteps. Now you just have to find a crazy director to write a movie about a great white whale, and you're really there. Oh, my.

Well, that's a beautiful script. Boy, when you think about that book and you think about that movie, that's one of his tremendous and perhaps more subtle or unrecognized works of art. Making Moby Dick into a beautiful and lively movie is not the most obvious thing. Because, I mean, I love that novel, but it is not precisely cinematic as it stands. And so Bradbury really made it into something, along with the rest of them. Stan Robinson, thanks very much for joining us on Planetary Radio. I guess maybe you're going to see if you can make it up the hill now to see the red planet.

Yeah, I want to have those light to see if you can make it up the hill now to see the red planet. Yeah, I want to have those light beams actually run through the telescope into my eye and see it well, and then my night will be complete. There is something special about that. I mean, you can see a beautiful picture from an orbiter or from Hubble, but to have the actual light of Mars coming through that lens at you. Yes, yes, and I may be, I hope that I am the first and perhaps only human being in history to have eaten a piece of Mars, which I did a few years ago when I was trying to finish Blue Mars. And so now to see it through a really good telescope,

it'll really complete the whole process. I can't imagine two people who seem to have been to Mars more than you and Ray. Yours happens to be a bit more like the Mars as we know it is today, and his a little less so. But both of you having built the most incredibly wonderful visions of this great planet. Well, thank you. There is something about the place that seems to have seeped in. And it was a period in my life, I think the same must be true for Bradbury, that Mars struck and then ever afterwards we're known as Martians.

It's sort of something that happened in the past, but I still have a really strong feeling for it, so it's nice. We've got to let you get some cake, including that white chocolate Mars sphere. Yes, I'll be eating Mars in a little more palatable form than the little bit of gravel that I ate. Don't tell any scientists about this, but there's some SNC meteorite that is gone from the studies. You know, I was afraid to ask. You've got to explain now. Well, you know, you can buy a piece of Mars, and it's gotten more expensive in recent years,

but the SNC meteorites that are clearly from Mars and landed on Earth are for sale through private meteorite dealers. They are not all, you know, in museums. So I bought a little necklace for my wife that had maybe 10 bits of Mars in it, very small. And I took the smallest one. And when I was writing Blue Mars, I needed help. I needed the full inspiration.

So I went up at sunset to the roof of my house and I ate that piece of Mars and let it seep into me. And I think I still have some atoms in my bones, I hope. And I'm hoping that I may be the first human ever to have done such a thing. So this may have played a part in when I was reading your Mars trilogy, in making me think, my God, how could this guy have written this without being there? Well, in fact, you weren't on Mars, it was in you. Yeah, I internalized the subject. Yes, yes, digested it.

Stan Robinson, thanks again very much. Thank you, Matt. Of course, you can't eat a Martian birthday cake until you've sung Happy Birthday and heard a few words from the guest of honor. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Ray. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Ray. Happy birthday to you.

This is great. You know, when I think back, when I was in high school, and I read my first Edgar Rice Burroughs books, The Warlord of Mars, Anthuvia of Mars, and all the other Martian books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I saw the drawings of Schiaparelli and the photographs from Lowe Observatory. I wrote my first story, which was a sequel to The Warlords of Mars by Burroughs. So you see before you someone who started out for Mars a long time ago. So it's a very special evening. And I saw a French magazine today.

They sent me an article. And the headline over my face was, I never came back from Mars. I just never came back. Because Edgar Rice Burroughs taught me how to go out on the lawns of summer and hold my hands up and say, Mars, take me home, huh?

And Mars took me home. And I've been there forever. So this evening is a wonderful celebration to me. My good friend Sam Weller is here tonight, and he's doing a book about my life. And he asked me the other day how I'd like to be remembered in connection with Mars, because a lot's going to happen the next few years. I'd like to quote first, I've written a new book of essays which will come out next year, and the title of which is

Remembering the Future Predicting the Past Remembering the Future Predicting the Past Also, Too Soon from the Cave Too Far from the Stars We're the in-between generation. We're in-between

the cave and the stars where we're going to live in the next 10,000 years. So we got a lot to forgive ourselves for. We've done a lot of things wrong, but we've done a lot of things right. When I was a child, I thought maybe we'd land on the moon when I was an old man. Well, it didn't work that way. I was in my 40s. And what a night that was. And what we're going to be doing in the next few years with our Martian landers

and our final landing on Mars with real people to call back to us across space is going to exhilarate all of mankind. What we need now is a substitute for war. We're engaged in a dozen wars all over the world right now in various countries, and there has to be some way of elevating our spirit and saying that mankind is special and wonderful and space travel is the way we do it.

And all the peoples of the world, in a real effort, will do this. And we'll be going to Mars with all of the people, not just a few, in the next 10, 20, 30 years. I wish I could stick around to be part of it. But the thing I dream is this, that some night, a hundred years from now, there will be a boy on Mars reading late at night with a flashlight under the covers. And he'll look out at the Martian landscape, which will be bleak and rocky and red, and not very romantic. But when he turns out the light,

it lies with a copy of my book, I hope, The Martian Chronicles. The Martian winds outside will stir, and the ghosts that are in my book will rouse up, and my creatures, even though they never lived, will be on Mars, and that's the dream I have, and that's the reason I'm here tonight. Thank you. Phase one of the party was over.

Time for most of the guests to pile into buses for the winding trip up Mount Wilson and a chance to look directly at Mars through one of the largest telescopes in the world. Much smaller scopes were arrayed around the dome of the 60-inch reflector. That's where we found yet another past Planetary Radio guest. Andre Bormannis is story editor and writer for Star Trek Enterprise, but he was an astronomer before Trek came into his life. You're two weeks away from the start of the season. Does Paramount know you're up on the mountain playing hooky? Aren't you supposed to be slaving over a hot word processor?

Don't tell them. I'm actually going to be slaving early tomorrow afternoon. I've got to go to work on a script that starts shooting at the end of the week, and we've got to check a set, actually, tomorrow afternoon. But, you know, I get a little time off to do some real astronomy now and then, so I can't complain. You're no stranger to Mount Wilson, are you? Oh, no.

In fact, for about six years, I was a volunteer for the TIE program, Telescopes and Education, which allows students in classrooms all over the world to access a 24-inch reflecting telescope remotely via their computers at school. And a couple of times a month I would come up here to be the operator on the telescope and had sessions with kids all across the United States and in Europe and also Japan. And it was great fun. And sadly, you're too busy sending Enterprise across the galaxy now to come and look at stars. I'm afraid so. You know, it's just I tend to be asleep in bed by about 10 o'clock these days. And, you know, I can't be coming home from Mount Wilson at 2 in the morning and getting to work early the next day to start trying to put words into Captain Archer's mouth.

It's been nice to have you up here tonight because you've really brought the benefits of having a real astronomer out here with all of our smaller telescopes. Oh, well, thanks. It's been a lot of fun. I mean, there's nothing more fun to me than showing people something like Mars in a telescope, especially people who've

never looked through a telescope, and they're always astonished by what they can see, and then when you explain to them exactly what they're looking at, they're even more blown away, so it's a treat. I wish I could do it more often. You were at the birthday party tonight as well. Did the birthday boy, Ray Bradbury,

play a special part in your interest in being up here on the mountain? He absolutely did. He was one of the primary influences in my life when I was a kid. I read the Martian Chronicles when I was about nine or ten years old and was hooked for life. And, you know, I'm almost as big a fan of the planet Mars as he is, thanks to him. So, no question, he was a big influence on my interest in astronomy and my desire to be a writer. All right, Andre, get back to that word processor. I'll try. Thanks, Matt. Andre Bourmanis of Star Trek Enterprise. In case you're wondering where Emily Lactewala went,

don't worry. She'll be back with another fascinating question and answer session next week. But we couldn't have Planet fascinating question and answer session next week. But we couldn't have Planetary Radio without visiting Bruce Betts. Well, we've had a lot of special editions of What's Up, but this has to be the most special. What's Up in the Dark? Mars. Mars is up in the dark. Here we are on top of Mount Wilson following Ray Bradbury birthday event.

And we are looking at Mars even as we speak, looking bright, bright, bright. But we'll come back to that. First, let's talk about this week in space history. On August 27th of 2003, Mars will be closer than ever. No, not really. Closer than in the last 60,000 years. Close enough. Close enough.

What to look at in the night sky? Mars. Go out and look at Mars. Rises around sunset, sets around sunrise. Look up. Close enough. What to look at in the night sky? Mars. Go out and look at Mars. Rises around sunset, sets around sunrise. Look up in the south, as we are doing in the middle of the night, and it's looking gorgeous. Random space fact!

Mars. Mars is closer, will be closer than it's been in almost 60,000 years. Did I mention that? Have you mentioned that? It's worth repeating. It is. It's Mars, people, Mars. Get excited. Get fired up.

Congrats. The most incoherent random space fact ever. We should say we are standing in the midst of a lot of telescopes. Please tell us where we are, Matt. We're on top of Mount Wilson still. We are actually doing what's up in the dark, radio in the dark. We're very close to the dome for the 60-inch telescope. I guess there's still a long line.

There is indeed a long line to see Mars through the 60-inch, looking through an eyepiece through a giant telescope. What an opportunity, Matt. What an opportunity. It does present us with a bit of a challenge, though, and I don't think it's one we'll overcome immediately, and that is to read the name of this week's, the winner of this week's trivia. Here, wait, let me turn on a flashlight.

No! No! Okay, sorry, we turned it off. We turned it off. All right, all right, we're not going to be able to turn it off. You turn on a flashlight when you're surrounded by scores of amateur astronomers? I don't think so. It's not pretty.

So, but I hear we did have a winner. We did have a winner. Did we have a question? We had a question. You know the question. Do you remember? The question involved was who was the second female in space. Yes.

And it was, I know her first name was Svetlana. Svetlana. The problem is we can't read anything up here because it's dark. So we're going to have to, we'll do it right after we're actually off the map. All right. All right. And she's actually now the cosmonaut formerly known as Svetlana. It's actually just this symbol thing, but we can't see that either because it's pitch

black out here. Now, one of our regulars actually pointed out that because you did not say who was the second woman in space, you said who was the second female. The second female in space was a second woman in space. You said who was the second female. The second female in space was a Russian dog. Bitch. Alright, well, we do have a winner. A winner in Sri Lanka, and we

will have that lucky person's name as soon as we finish here on the mountain where it's getting late and we're getting a little slap happy. Okay, trivia question for this week. What planet is coming closest to Earth in almost 60,000 years this very week on August 27th? I know it's going to be tough. Do those Google searches.

Come up with the answer. Go to planetary.org. Follow the links to Planetary Radio and let us know what the answer is. Maybe you, too, can win one of our fabulous Mars panoramas in 3-D. However, I'm going to give you an important tip. You'll need to turn the lights on to fully appreciate it. Because I'm looking at one right now and I can't see a darn thing. And that's What's Up from Mount Wilson.

And if we're really fortunate, we'll be back next week with Bruce Betts and another edition of this regular feature on Planetary Radio. See, it doesn't close us down. Good night, Bruce. Good night, Matt. Good night, everyone. Say good night, everyone. Bye.

As promised, here's the name of our Sri Lankan listener who won this week's trivia contest. Congratulations to Nilmini Diabru Rajapakshi, who will be receiving that Mars 3D poster soon. The second woman, note that's woman in space, was Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya. Oh yes, a tip of the space helmet to Alex Chapman, one of our British regulars. He's the wag who pointed out Bruce's bitchy semantic error. Last but not least, it may not be too late to have your birthday greetings included on that giant card for Ray Bradbury. Just visit the Planetary Society's website at planetary.org for details. Back to our regular format next week when we visit with planetary scientist,

artist, and author William Hartman. We'll talk about his new tourist guide to... where else? Mars. Have a great week. Hi, Mr. Bradbury. I'm Gigi Fernandez, a 16-year-old junior at St. Joseph High School in Lakewood, California. Next month, I'll be on stage with other students performing dramatized versions of four of your wonderful stories.

Thank you so much for the magic you've brought into our world, and happy birthday from all of us.