Merton E. Davies (September 13, 1917 – April 17, 2001) was a pioneer of America's space program, first in earth reconnaissance and later in planetary exploration and mapping. He graduated from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
in 1938 and worked for the
Douglas Aircraft
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...
corporation in the 1940s. He worked as a member of
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finance ...
after it split off from Douglas in 1948 and for the remainder of his career.
Career
National reconnaissance (1947–1970)
Davies' early work was highly classified and included original analyses of materials, payloads, structures, and propulsion systems for missiles and spacecraft.
Davies, along with
Amrom Harry Katz, were early advocates of the United States' development of balloon and reconnaissance satellite technology (including
CORONA
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
).
Davies made key contributions to US intelligence operations during critical periods of the Cold War.
He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Surprise Attack Conference in Geneva in 1958 and was later a consultant to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In 1966 he was awarded the George W. Goddard Award for distinguished contributions to photo reconnaissance. In 1967 he served as a U.S. Observer on an inspection of foreign bases in Antarctica under terms of the Antarctic Treaty. He was awarded the
Antarctic Service Medal
The Antarctica Service Medal (ASM) was established by the United States Congress on July 7, 1960, under s:Public Law 86-600, Public Law 600 of the 86th United States Congress, 86th Congress. The medal was intended as a awards and decorations of ...
by the U.S. Navy.
On August 18, 2000, Davies was acknowledged as one of the ten Founders of National Reconnaissance by the
National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. fe ...
for his leadership in advocating the use of satellites for national reconnaissance and inventing the Spin-Pan (
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
compensating) camera concept. The other original Founders were:
William O. Baker
William Oliver Baker (July 15, 1915 – October 31, 2005) was president of Bell Labs from 1973 to 1979 and advisor on scientific matters to five United States presidents.
Biography
He was born on July 15, 1915 in Chestertown, Maryland.
He receive ...
,
Sidney Drell
Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and arms control expert.
At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fe ...
,
Richard L. Garwin,
Amrom Harry Katz,
James R. Killian,
Edwin H. Land
Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an Russian-American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, ...
,
Frank W. Lehan
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Curre ...
,
William J. Perry,
Edward M. Purcell
Edward Mills Purcell (August 30, 1912 – March 7, 1997) was an American physicist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent discovery (published 1946) of nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and in solids. Nuclear magne ...
. Although their early work was highly classified, this group of men went on to extraordinary public accomplishments, including a Secretary of Defense, a Nobel Laureate, a president of MIT, recipients of the Presidential Medal of Science, a renowned planetary scientist, and more.
Planetary exploration (1965–2001)
In 1965 he participated in the first
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge, California ...
(JPL) attempt to fly to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
a tiny primitive spacecraft carrying the world's first digital camera,
Mariner 4
Mariner 4 (together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit the ...
, and the follow-on Mars flyby missions,
Mariners 6 and 7. Then he went on to an unparalleled career in planetary exploration. He was a key member of the imaging teams of Mariners 6, 7,
9, and
10, of
Voyagers 1 and 2 and
Galileo
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
and
Cassini, of
NEAR
NEAR or Near may refer to:
People
* Thomas J. Near, US evolutionary ichthyologist
* Near, a developer who created the higan emulator
Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine
* National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR), a form ...
and
Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...
.
He was responsible for creating the
geodetic control network for the
mapping of the surface of Mars, and thus had the honor of establishing its
prime meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...
. As described by
Tobias Owen for the American Astronomical Society: "Before launch, he participated in the design of the camera systems and the development of imaging strategies. When the data came in, it was Mert who established the
coordinate systems
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sign ...
for all of the target objects. The maps we have of Mercury, Venus, Mars and the satellites of the outer planets are all based on his work in establishing the point of zero longitude or the prime meridian for each object. As
Bruce Murray has commented, to do so for even one such object would be a "major career achievement by any scientist," but to be credited for having done so for essentially every large solid object in the solar system except Earth and Pluto provides "an instructive lens through which to view Davies accomplishment."(EOS, 82, 46(13 November 2001):551–552.)
He invented the photogrammetric control point technique that provided the basic framework for all planetary surface mapping and coordinates systems of his era. His fundamental contributions to planetary mapping led to his being the founding chairman of the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements of the Planets and Satellites in 1976. At about this same time, he became a member of the newly created task groups reporting to the IAU Working Group for Planetary and Satellite Nomenclature.
[Davies, M. E., and T. R. Colvin, "Lunar Coordinates in the Regions of the Apollo Landers," Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 105, E8, pp. 20,277-20,280, 2000.]
He received the Talbert Abrams Award of the American Society of Photogrammetry in 1974. In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's ...
.
At the time of his death, he was credited with "single-handedly observing more of the solar system than any other human," by Torrence Johnson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory project scientist of Project Galileo.
The Martian crater
Davies
Davies is a patronymic surname of English or Welsh origin. There are two main theories concerning its beginnings, neither of which has been definitively proven. The first theory contends that it may be a corruption of "Dyfed", the name of a medie ...
is named after him. It is situated on the
prime meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...
, appropriate because Davies established its location.
References
* Davies, M. E., and B. C. Murray, The View from Space, New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1971.
*
External links
American Astronomical Society Obituary*
ttp://www.nro.gov/news/press/2000/2000-07.pdf National Reconnaissance Press release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Merton
1917 births
2001 deaths
American astronomers
Burials at Valley Oaks Memorial Park
Stanford University alumni
RAND Corporation people