Harold Masursky

Harold Masursky
Masursky c. 1980
Born	(1922-12-23)December 23, 1922 Fort Wayne, Indiana
Died	August 24, 1990(1990-08-24) (aged 67) Flagstaff, Arizona
Education	Yale University B.S., M.S.
Known for	Planetary Science
Awards	4 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medals (1972, 1973, 1977 & 1980) Distinguished Service Award, Dept. of Interior (1985) Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievements (1988) G. K. Gilbert Award (1990)
Scientific career
Fields	Geology, Astrogeology
Institutions	NASA, United States Geological Survey

Harold (Hal) Masursky /məˈzɜːrski/ (December 23, 1922 – August 24, 1990) was an American astrogeologist.^[1]

He started his career working as a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey, in Flagstaff, Arizona.^[2] Later, Masursky joined NASA as a senior science member, where he worked in the areas of economic, structural and planetary geology.

He was responsible for the investigation of planetary and lunar surfaces, being interested in finding scientifically valuable landing places. This included the Apollo, where, in the 1960s, he played a major role in choosing landing sites. In the 1970s, he headed the team that mapped the surface of Mars and was once again involved in choosing landing sites, this time for the Viking missions. In the 1980s, he worked with the Voyager program to explore the surfaces of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Masursky worked on numerous space missions and programs including Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, Mariner 9, Pioneer Venus, as well as on the Galileo and Magellan spacecraft.^[2]

A key role was his work as the president of the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union.^[3]

In 1985 Masursky was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award Gold Medal, which is the highest honorary recognition an employee can receive within the Department of the Interior. Quoting from the award, the 1985 USGS Yearbook states: “Harold Masursky, Geologist, for his imaginative leadership in the field of astrogeology which has influenced almost every facet of lunar and planetary exploration since the beginning of the nation's space program.”^[4][5]

A crater on Mars and the asteroid 2685 Masursky were named in his honor. The Masursky Award^[6] and the ^[3][7] are named after him as well.

Awards[]

• 1972 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center^[8]
• 1973 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center^[8]
• 1977 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center^[8]
• 1980 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center^[8]
• 1981 Honorary D.Sc. degree conferred by Northern Arizona University^[9]
• 1985 Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award (gold medal).^[5]
• 1988 Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievements in Lunar and Planetary Exploration (in 2020 renamed “The Michael Collins Trophy”)^[10]
• 1990 G. K. Gilbert Award from the Geological Society of America for outstanding contributions to the solution of fundamental problems in planetary geology^[11]
• 1990 JPL-NASA Magellan Mission Award Plaque For Exceptional Contributions in the Exploration of Venus (posthumous award presented by Jet Propulsion Lab)^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[]

• Harold Masursky Award for Meritorious Service to Planetary Science, usually called the Masursky Award, is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society.^[12]
• The Harold Masursky Lecture Series began in 1992, as a tribute to his work, and is sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.^[3]

Selected publications[]

• Masursky, Harold, J. M. Boyce, A. L. Dial, G. G. Schaber, and M. E. Strobell. "Classification and time of formation of Martian channels based on Viking data." Journal of Geophysical Research 82, no. 28 (1977): 4016–4038.
• Masursky, Harold, George Willis Colton, and Farouk El-Baz. "Apollo over the Moon: a view from orbit". Vol. 362. Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1978.
• Masursky, Harold, Eric Eliason, Peter G. Ford, George E. McGill, Gordon H. Pettengill, Gerald G. Schaber, and Gerald Schubert. "Pioneer Venus radar results: Geology from images and altimetry." Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 85, no. A13 (1980): 8232–8260.
• Smith, Bradford A., Laurence Soderblom, Reta Beebe, Joseph Boyce, Geoffery Briggs, Anne Bunker, Stewart A. Collins et al. "Encounter with Saturn: Voyager 1 imaging science results." Science 212, no. 4491 (1981): 163-191.
• Smith, Bradford A., Laurence Soderblom, Raymond Batson, Patricia Bridges, J. A. Y. Inge, Harold Masursky, Eugene Shoemaker et al. "A new look at the Saturn system: The Voyager 2 images." Science 215, no. 4532 (1982): 504–537.

External links[]

• Three-part Oral History Interview, 19 June 1987
• The Work of Harold 'Hal' Masursky, A YouTube short documentary, 2003.

References[]