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Blue Dot: Profile of a legend: a look at the career of Voyager Project Scientist Edward C. Stone

Scientist Edward C. Stone.
NASA
/
JPL
Scientist Edward C. Stone.

Blue Dot spotlights the amazing career of one of America's greatest space scientists, Ed Stone. Stone was the Project Scientist for the Voyager missions for 50 years, overseeing the historical tour of the outer solar system's gas giants and their retinue of icy moons and now exploring interstellar space. Stone recently retired from his duties at NASA/JPL and CalTech.

Host Dave Schlom visits with some of the colleagues who have worked closely with, and been influenced deeply by the scientist who also was the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991-2001. Guests include Voyager Project Manager Suzanne Dodd, longtime science team members Linda Spilker and Alan Cummings along with Stone's final grad student at CalTech, Jamie Rankin, who is now a Deputy Project Scientist for the twin Voyager missions, the first human made objects to reach interstellar space..

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.