The passing of Brad Smith is a sad loss of an excellent astronomer, who as the “nation’s tour guide” captured the imagination and created the excitement of the countless Voyager discoveries of the outer solar system for everyone to share.
Brad and I had been friends for 50 years. We had been close working colleagues as original members of the Voyager Imaging Team.
Brad did a brilliant job controlling this group of prima donnas as we worked together developing the complex issues for a space mission into the unknown, creating a new special instrument for the emerging digital age and developing the special image processing facilities and data analysis software which enabled us to perform quantitative scientific studies of the atmosphere and surfaces of distant worlds.
Some of the meetings were a little like a Wild West shoot out, but there was always a wonderful lasting friendship between everyone. Brad deserves the credit for being such a good leader. He leadership style was like a music conductor. Starting with an octet (the original team) and gradually adding to the members as the repertoire grew so that this Cosmic Orchestra was able to address the full symphony of discoveries of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, their satellites and rings.
The outstanding results from Voyager will always be a lasting legacy of Brad Smith’s significant contribution to astronomical knowledge.
Garry E Hunt