The Science Channel show Brink
produced a segment based on this DISCOVER story; see the video below.
Growing up on Long Island, Pappalardo was seduced by astronomy early. He began hanging planets from the ceiling of his bedroom at age 7. While studying at Cornell University in the mid-1980s, he sat in on a seminar with Carl Sagan and was enraptured by speculation of oceans on distant moons. As a researcher at Brown University in the late 1990s, Pappalardo worked on the Galileo mission when the first detailed pictures of the planet’s icy satellites were beamed back to Earth. Later he landed a job at the University of Colorado at Boulder before moving to JPL, the mecca of solar system exploration.
Pappalardo’s low-key, almost shy manner and science-casual style of dressing are deceptive. He is part of a savvy new breed of researchers who are as comfortable roaming the halls of NASA headquarters, chairing a meeting of colleagues, or chatting with congressional staffers as they are with crunching data in their offices. But for years his convictions, connections, and persuasive arguments were not enough to win a green light for a Europa mission. The stunning 1996 discovery of a purported fossil in a meteorite from Mars reignited public and scientific fascination with that planet, and NASA embarked on a cycle of biennial missions to tackle the intriguing question of life there—past or present. Little money was allocated to initiate other planetary missions.
