Talk:James Van Allen
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User:Greg Beat Addition of NASM Trophy awarded to Jim on March 8, 2007 - accepted by his daughter at NASM Annex dinner/reception (jim talked to group via telephone). Still need to expand description of Jim's work in 1960's (e.g. Injun1, Startfish, Mars/Venus Mariner programs; Pioneer 10/11 PI role / outer planet exploration; participation in Galileo mission as well as Hawkeye 1). Would like to find an old photo of Sugar Bottom (North Liberty, IA) antenna array - circa 1960s -- before the conversion and transfer to the NSF VLBI program in early 1980s. -- Greg Beat 15:00, 15 Mar 2006 (UTC)
- Mr. Richard Arthur Norton mentioned in his commentary about eliminating the “Timeline” approach in this article. I am “sandboxing” that section (different approaches) to keep major content points and reduce size. The purpose is NOT to eliminate areas that are linked to other articles (spacecraft, Space Race, Sputnik response etc.). Some Dr. Van Allen's achievements after 1959 are still missing. I welcome comments or suggestions in this area. Greg Beat 03:10, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
I would be happy to correspond with interested parties wishing to expand this biography on James Van Allen, my friend and mentor - who passed away this morning. I largely created this current version (timeline) from an initial biography stub created by the University of Iowa Department of Physics (web page) in the mid-1990s. Regarding manned spaceflight - Dr. Van Allen thought that more scienitific results were obtained from robotic probes for the dollars spent (and based on actual NASA, Russian other space budgets - he is still economically correct). It is a pure, supportable economic point. Greg Beat 19:42, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Comments about the timeline
I think a timeline is a good idea, but here it does not contain enough information. It should be supplemented by standard paragraphs. The late Dr. Van Allen was one of the 20th century's most important researchers in space physics, and there's a lot more that should be said about that. Also, his unwavering opposition to manned space flight deserves mention.
Some questions about specific timeline items:
- March 1, 1949 The concept of launching small high-performance rockets suspended from a balloon above most of the atmosphere (later called "Rockoons"), developed by Cmdr. Lee Lewis, Cmdr. G. Halvorson, S. F. Singer, and J. A. Van Allen during Aerobee firing cruise of U.S.S. Norton Sound.
They developed this in one day ???
- No - this was the specific day the concept was proposed (and documented) by this group (mentioned in a number of sources - including Van Allen's autobiogrpahy)
- 1951 James Van Allen became head of the physics department at the University of Iowa. Before long, he was enlisting students in his efforts to discover the secrets of the wild blue yonder and inventing ways to carry instruments higher into the atmosphere than ever before. Van Allen was the first to devise a balloon-rocket combination that lifted rockets on balloons high above most of Earth’s atmosphere before firing them even higher. The rockets were ignited after the balloons reached an altitude of 16 kilometers.
How does this relate to the March 1, 1949 item?
- 1949 is the concept -- but the "Rockoons" were refined, built and initially tested in Iowa countryside - by 1952 - it was time to move to safer launch ranges (under development or in polar regions)
- 1952 As TIME reported in 1959, “Van Allen’s ‘Rockoons’ could not be fired in Iowa for fear that the spent rockets would spike an Iowan or his house.”
Is "spike" the word that was actually used here? Or should it be "strike"?
- typo - correct should be strike. Original reference may have also had same typo.
- December 31, 1958 The International Geophysical Year ends.
Is this item needed?
- I am often amazed that many experts do not know this. It is significiant in that later launches in 1958 (after Explorer I) - such as Explorer 3 and Pioneer 3 -- were 2 additional US contributions that were covered under the IGY research umbrella.
- As a new reader, I love the timeline. It is a very direct way of providing info. I have a question---I hope someone can include the answer in the bio. As a student at Iowa, what I heard about Dr. Van Allen is that he loved to teach, and he knew that teaching freshman was as important and meaningful as teaching grad students. I heard he said that a good teacher who knows what he is doing can make the most complex idea accessible to anyone. I have often wished to have an exact quote because this philosophy of teaching has been important to me over the years. If anyone could supply such a quote, it would add a dimension to the picture of who he was. At the moment what we have is an impressive list of accomplishments. The quote I hope someone can supply would show other kinds of contributions that may be just as important. --Priceannea 04:55, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Current structure (timeline) needs improvement
- I think the timeline should be replaced with text paragraphs in sections, but it would be possible to add a graphical timeline in its place - see Isembard Kingdom Brunel or John Vanbrugh for examples. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:22, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
- The timeline needs to be fixed somehow. A bulleted messy list isn't helping matters. Hopefully the cleanup tag remains this time, and doesn't get removed. RobJ1981 20:41, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
- The timeline section needs to be substantially rewritten into an encyclopedic form. It should be in paragraphs, with items of more significance given more airtime, and possible either own sections. --P3d0 18:11, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
- All good ideas, and I have 2 or 3 different draft styles -- BUT I currently do not have time, maybe in a few weeks. Some good material has come in past 3 weeks since his death -- from some sources that have been quiet to earlier requests. One or two sentence comments here are easy! Beatgr 22:50, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
