Jamaica High's Martin Goldman Helped NASA Launch

We often wondered what the former GO President was doing

Martin Goldman was the valedictorian at Jamaica High School in 1956, which is saying a lot. We had 821 graduates and needed two graduation sessions.

Martin’s average of 97.484 was the second highest in the history of the school at the time. He was also president of the General Organization and was widely respected as both smart and genial, and he remains so today, as a physics professor at the University of Colorado.

Goldman is also a project scientist at the successful launch at Cape Canaveral Thursday.

From Kenneth Chang’s article in The New York Times on Thursday:

“A NASA mission called Magnetospheric Multiscale, scheduled to be launched Thursday night, aims to make the first detailed measurements of a region of colliding magnetic fields about 38,000 miles above Earth. The magnetic collisions, which can potentially disrupt satellites and power grids, are not well understood.”

It continued: “The protective bubble of the Earth’s magnetic field typically deflects high-speed particles from the sun. But an onslaught of particles from a solar explosion can pop the outer layers of the bubble.”

Asked to describe his role in the mission, Martin wrote in an e-mail: “I am the PI and Team leader for one of three Interdisciplinary Science Teams which each received a ten-year research grant from NASA seven years ago to do research in support of MMS.  Our mission was to predict what MMS will measure by performing computer simulations of magnetic reconnection, by developing mathematical models to describe the physical processes and to study relevant results from existing spacecraft.” 

Martin continued: “MMS is NASA's most complex mission ever. There are over 100 experiments on board each satellite. This kind of "robotic" exploration of space has a much greater scientific payoff than manned exploration of space (such as the space shuttle) and is much more cost effective. The MMS mission will reveal key energization processes triggered by the sun in Earth's magnetic field over many 10's of Earth radii.

“These processes occur explosively and can affect our power grid as well as expose astronauts and pilots to high levels of radiation.  The same processes cause the auroral borealis at northern latitudes.  We need to know how to predict when they will occur and how much energy will be released from Earth's magnetic fields. The physics that will be learned will be relevant to other venues in which magnetic reconnection occurs such as in astrophysical objects and in harnessing the fusion energy of hydrogen for sustainable energy production far into the future.”

Martin and Helen Goldman, who catch up with old friends on trips home to New York, were at the blastoff at 10:44 PM Thursday.

“It was a Hollywood launch,” Martin wrote. “I was just as thrilled as my 25 family members surrounding me at the lift. My 11-year-old niece Cella Sawyer expressed my feelings perfectly.” Cella wrote:

“THIS IS NOT THE SUN!!! It’s a rocket, and it seriously lit up the ENTIRE SKY!!! Like NO JOKE!!! It is also 11 PM – not the morning!!! This is probably the most AMAZING 5 minutes of my life!!! Thanks Uncle Marty and Congratulations!!!”

Congratulations from all of us, too, Martin and Helen.

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The mission can be followed on NASA various sites: 

NASA link:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/multimedia/index.html#.VQMCW-GGMg7

Great assortment of photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasakennedy/sets/72157649836241016/with/15953146103/

Instruments:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/spacecraft/instruments.html#graphic

Project Scientists (including Martin Goldman)

http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov/inter_scientist_team.html

Launch Schedule for Cape Kennedy:

http://spacecoastlaunches.com/

Tom Moore, a leader of this mission, was a student of Martin’s at Boulder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biItTLrz0cQ

How it will work/ Photo courtesy of NASA