![]() I like to think of the stamp as allowing me to vicariously explore the solar system. RM: Well, I’ve certainly never had any of my artwork travel so far from the Earth! In fact, unless I’m mistaken, only the Voyager plaque has traveled farther. Staehle “jokingly asked what we were doing about this travesty of ‘Pluto – Not Yet Explored.’” That was when “the mission was born,” Staehle concluded.ĮB: As an artist who’s illustrated this unexplored planet for decades, including for Astronomy magazine, what does it mean to you to have your stamp fly past Pluto? On that same day, Staehle stopped by the office of his friend Stacy Weinstein, of JPL’s Advanced Projects Group, with the Pluto stamp. The stamp for Pluto simply announced, NOT YET EXPLORED, as if to taunt engineers and scientists at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the stamp were unveiled in a first-day-of-issue ceremony on October 1.” On a stamp for each of the first eight planets and the Moon appeared an illustration of the celestial body with one of the spacecraft which visited it. Postal Service issued 10 stamps commemorating the success of planetary exploration. It had already been the inspiration for one earlier proposed Pluto mission. In 1993, JPL engineer Robert Staehle explained this in a paper titled, “ To Pluto by way of a postage stamp.” “During 1991,” he wrote, “with Voyager 2’s Neptune encounter two years behind us, the U.S. ![]() Anyway, although there was no direct one-to-one relationship between the stamp and New Horizons, Alan did know that the “Not Yet Explored” had rankled a lot of scientists. RM: I’ve only seen a photo of the stamp on the spacecraft, but I believe it is in some sort of protective sleeve. However, the other members of the committee thought that the stamps should have a more American connection, hence the addition of a spacecraft that was relative to each world except, of course, for Pluto.ĮB: How did the “Not yet explored” stamp actually find it’s way onto New Horizons? ![]() I do know that the stamps were originally to be just of the solar system’s worlds alone. I don’t really recall how we got in touch originally or who first suggested the idea. He was also a member of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee. Ron Miller: It was done at the instigation of Howard Paine, who was at the time the art director at National Geographic. I recently chatted via email with Miller about what it’s like to have his art soaring toward the solar system frontier and how it happened.Įric Betz: How did your official stamp series come about in 1991 and what was the response at the time? The Southwest Research Institute where Stern works launched a petition several years ago encouraging them to do so. Postal Service will issue a new commemorative stamp once Pluto is officially explored next month. “That stamp had been in so many presentations by that point, I knew it would please people to have it go along.”Īfter his team won the competition and built New Horizons, he says he knew they had to “send the canceled stamp to Pluto.” And Stern hopes the U.S. For many years, people had waved that stamp around as sort of a call to arms - as a motivating graphic - ‘Not yet explored,’” Stern said in a recent interview with Astronomy magazine. New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern wanted to flaunt the juxtaposition as NASA reconnoitered the last unexplored planet. Their work would soon merge with the efforts of others already well underway (including the Pluto Underground) and spawn the Pluto 350 project. Staehle says that after the ceremony, he and JPL scientist Stacy Weinstein discussed what they’d do about the “Not yet explored” travesty. JPL’s Robert Staehle would later recount the tale in an article titled “ To Pluto by way of a postage stamp.” The stamps were unveiled in a ceremony at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where many of the exploration efforts were centered. But for the ninth planet, the text simply read, “Pluto: Not yet explored.” Each stamp ran with an image of the spacecraft that explored it. government commissioned Miller for 10 illustrations - one for every planet, plus the Moon. On the heels of Voyager’s final flyby at Neptune, the U.S. And, in a strange way, the stamp helped get New Horizons started by irking some of the very scientists it was meant to honor. The 1991 stamp designed by longtime Astronomy magazine contributor Ron Miller is among the nine earthly mementos New Horizons carries in its Pluto-bound cargo. How much does shipping cost to the Kuiper Belt? Apparently, if you go via the U.S.
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