Rosaly Lopes: NASA’s Volcano Hunter of the Outer Solar System Rosaly Lopes (born 1957) is a Brazilian planetary scientist (studies the planets and moons of our solar system) and volcanologist (studies volcanoes) whose analysis of data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft led to the discovery of 71 active volcanoes on Io, Jupiter’s volcanic moon, an achievement recognized by Guinness World…
Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) established the mathematical foundations for America’s early space achievements through her expertise in celestial mechanics (the mathematics of how objects move through space under gravity), trajectory analysis, and orbital calculations (working out the curved paths a spacecraft follows). Her precise computations enabled historic missions from Alan Shepard‘s first American spaceflight to…