Planetary Scientist, Retired
Dr. Ellis Miner worked on missions to all eight planets - a distinction that made him everybody's answer man during a four decade career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. His career spanned the 1969 Mariner 7 to Mars to the Cassini mission to Saturn, which arrived at Saturn in 2004 shortly before his retirement.
When Miner first arrived at JPL, he was about to don an army uniform. Fresh out of graduate school and a young father of two, he was facing two years of active duty in Korea. Upon completion of his officer training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, he was unexpectedly sent back to JPL - which at that time employed active duty officers - to serve his two-year term.
"I wore my uniform more for Fourth of July ceremonies than for active duty purposes," said Miner.
He started his career in the inner solar system with Mariner 7, Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 to Mars and then Mariner 10 to Venus and Mercury. But the highlight of his career were Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions to the outer solar system. The granddaddies of space exploration provided the world with stunning images of the gas giants and invaluable science about these distant worlds. Shortly before the launch of the Voyager missions, Miner was working half time on the Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions to Mars and half time on Voyager.
Dedicated to his infrared research, he was hesitant to accept the job as assistant project scientist on Voyager when offered by Dr. Ed Stone, Voyager's project scientist. The upcoming Saturn approaches were going to be challenging and Stone thought Miner would be a major asset to the team. Miner gave a firm "no." But a persistent Stone asked him to reconsider. In a final attempt to politely decline Stone's offer, Miner typed up a list of conditions he required if he was to take the job. Thinking that they would be promptly rejected, he was surprised when Stone agreed to every one.
"Voyager was probably the most exciting project I've worked on at JPL," Miner said. "I doubt very much that there will ever be a mission as great as Voyager. I found myself an 'unofficial psychiatrist' - it was like a family and when it was over, it was very hard to say goodbye."
Believing that researching the wonders of space isn't enough, Miner spent countless hours sharing his knowledge.
"One of my motivations was helping my children with their homework and realizing that I needed to make the concepts real to them instead of just memorization of formulas - that got me interested in communicating science to the public," he said. "I worked with our education office and we thought about how we should be reaching out to the education community."
He joined NASA's Solar System Exploration Forum, the official NASA destination for educational activities and materials related to solar system exploration. Miner has also lent his enthusiasm for publicizing space science to the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Serving as press officer, one of Miner's missions has been to improve the organization's education and public outreach efforts.
"The amazement is in recognizing that, by exploring space, we are doing something that's never been done before - that we are discovering - that there are many interesting things in space," Miner said. "I never tire of talking about it to general audiences. I've probably given better than 400 talks and every time people come away astounded."
Outside of space exploration, Miner enjoys a rich family life with his wife, Beverly Allen, their seven children and many grandchildren.
He values family life above all. One of his personal mottos is "the greatest work you will ever accomplish will be within the walls of your own home."
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he has served in leadership roles and taught high school students at early morning seminary. Miner has also penned books on Uranus and Neptune. He closed his space science career as the science manager for the the Cassini mission to Saturn and co-director of the NASA Solar System Exploration Education and Public Outreach Forum.
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