[meteorite-list] In Memoriam: David S. McKay

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:28:10 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201302220028.r1M0SAFp007156_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20130221-David-McKay-passing.html

In Memoriam: David S. McKay
By Bruce Betts
The Planetary Society
February 21, 2013

I am sad to report that NASA scientist David S. McKay passed away
yesterday, Feb. 20, 2013 at age 77. I got to know David in his role as
a Co-Investigator on The Planetary Society's Phobos LIFE (Living
Interplanetary Flight Experiment) project. David was engaged early on
in the project and was engaged particularly in recommendations of
organisms to fly in space, and in suggestions for members of our science
team. He was enthusiastic about science and a pleasure to work with.
He had long been a friend of the Society prior to the LIFE experiment.

More broadly, David made significant contributions to planetary science
over his long career, as discussed more below. He is most famous with
the public for being the lead author on the 1996 paper that announced
possible evidence for life in a Martian meteorite. There has been and
continues to be considerable debate and research into that particular
finding, but there is no doubt that that paper and those that followed
helped spawn a more robust Mars program, helped direct the program's
course more towards searching for past habitibility of Mars, and helped
lead to increasing the profile and funding for astrobiology research at
NASA. In addition, let us not forget that his contributions to
planetary science were much broader as well, particularly his
contributions to lunar studies in a 47 year career at NASA.

Below, I reproduce an email from Stephen Mackwell, the Director of the
Lunar and Planetary Institute, which does a nice job of discussing
David's career. Godspeed, David McKay.

David S. McKay, Chief Scientist for Astrobiology at the NASA Johnson
Space Center, passed away on February 20, 2013. During the Apollo
program, McKay gave the first men to walk on the Moon training in
geology. In recent years, McKay was perhaps best known for being the
first author of a scientific paper postulating past life on Mars on the
basis of evidence in martian meteorite ALH 84001. This paper has become
one of the most heavily cited papers in planetary science. The NASA
Astrobiology Institute was founded partially as a result of community
interest in this paper and related topics.

As a graduate student in geology at Rice University, McKay was present
at John F. Kennedy's speech in 1962 announcing the goal of landing a man
on the Moon within the decade. Kennedy's speech inspired his interest in
helping to train the Apollo astronauts in geology. He was a chief
trainer for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their last geology
field trip in West Texas. On July 20, 1969, McKay was the only geologist
present in the Apollo Mission Control Room in Houston when Armstrong and
Aldrin walked on the Moon.

McKay studied lunar dust since the return of the first Apollo 11 samples
in 1969, and has contributed over 200 publications on this topic. As a
result of this effort, McKay contributed major discoveries, including
the source of vapor deposition on lunar soil grains, the formation of
nanophase iron globules on lunar soil grains, the processes on the Moon
that contribute to grain size distribution, and insight into space
weathering and the chemically activated nature of in situ lunar dust.

McKay was honored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) by
having an asteroid named after him in 2002. His IAU citation mentions
his years of work on lunar samples as well as the positive effect his
research on martian meteorites has had on planetary research. McKay was
also a recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Award at Rice
University, the NASA Superior Achievement Award for Lunar Science
Contributions; the Laurels Award from Aviation Week and Space
Technology, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and the
Distinguished Texas Scientist Award from the Texas Academy of Science.

McKay was with NASA for more than 47 years, and made substantial
contributions to science during his career. He will be missed.
Received on Thu 21 Feb 2013 07:28:10 PM PST