Interview with Michael Carroll - Drifting on Alien Winds

When magazines and the press run Astronomy related news stories, a stunning colour image from a space telescope or far flung probe will typically be included to grab the reader’s attention. When the content describes an, as yet, unvisited world or the imagery required is unobtainable, editors turn instead to the imagination and skill of space-artists to provide us with visual representations of the subject.

High on an editors list of choice would be Michael Carroll, a renowned space-artist and author whose work has been commissioned by NASA and has appeared in numerous magazines and books. In 2006 Carroll was the recipient of the Lucien Rudaux Award for lifetime achievement in the astronomical arts.

Carroll’s latest book, Drifting on Alien Winds; Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds published by Springer Books, combines his art and interest in space to bring the reader a fascinating insight into the weather systems and atmospheres of the Planets and Satellites of our Solar System.

I talked to Michael Carroll about his latest book and interests.

Michael, you have had space-art commissioned by NASA and digital copies of your work are aboard several probes. Which came first, your passion for art or your interest in Astronomy and what influenced you to combine the two?

It’s a sort of chicken-and-egg thing. I’ve always loved nature and science. My father was an aerospace engineer at Martin Marietta for 30 years, and did some work in early designs for planetary probes. Both my parents are artistic, and I started painting at the age of eleven. Have loved art and science ever since, and as I studied the Renaissance in college, I realized that there has always been an interesting relationship between art, science and philosophy, the “grand triad” of Renaissance thinking.

Saturn's rings arc across the evening sky - © Michael Carroll.

What was the driver behind Drifting on Alien Winds?

I’m basically a rocks guy. I understand geology more than meteorology. But I was talking to the brilliant Mars researcher Ben Clark one day about how geology and atmosphere are interrelated. It got me interested.

Part one of Drifting on Alien Winds gives a history of US and Russian probes which have sampled weather on other worlds. In your opinion which of these orbiters and landers has had the biggest impact on our understanding of that world’s weather system?

It really depends on what time period you pick, but for ground-breaking, fundamental change in understanding, I would have to say the Voyagers. These two craft (and in particular Voyager 2) truly revolutionized our thinking about weather on the outer planets, which also gives insight into terrestrial weather. The “grand tour” of the solar system from 1979 to 1989 provided our first comprehensive understanding of the gas and ice giants. Others include the Soviet Veneras at Venus, the Viking landers at Mars, and the Galileo and Cassini/Huygens missions to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. (It’s difficult to narrow it down!)

The book goes on to describe, individually, our current understanding of the weather systems and atmospheres of the inner rocky and outer gas giant planets; for you, which Planet is the most interesting meteorologically?

My favourite weather systems have to be on Mars or Titan. On Mars, the weather is tied directly into the waxing and waning of the polar ice caps, where a great deal of the planet’s carbon dioxide is locked up in winter. The red planet snows, blows dust, sports blue sunsets and spins dust devils across its desert face. Titan is another story: any place where the water behaves like rock and the skies rain cryogenic liquid methane is enough to give one chills!

Which of the Planets has been the most inspirational to your art?

I think Mars has been. Its alien landscapes are hauntingly earth like, but each one has an edge to it, as if something’s not quite right. Mars has been fun and challenging to paint, not only in its present state but in its past (with in-falling asteroids, erupting volcanoes, and icebergs bobbing in ancient seas) and its future, when we will potentially terraform it into a world more earth like than the one it used to be.

Noachian epoch on Mars, 3.7 to 4 million years ago - © Michael Carroll.

The book ends with a look at future missions. Which mission(s) do you think has the greatest potential to increase our understanding of the target?

Two missions come to mind. The first is a sea-going mission to the methane lakes of Titan, now under study as a possible NASA Discovery mission. The little craft would float around, testing the methane “waters” and sampling the organic compounds that rain from Titan’s high-altitude hazes. The second is the ARES Mars airplane being worked out by NASA Langley and other institutes. This clever craft can look for localized sources for the mysterious methane leaking from the Martian surface (in an atmosphere like the Martian one, methane probably indicates either biology or volcanic activity, either of which would be exciting!).

Some Martian valleys appear to have been carved by glaciers - © Michael Carroll.

Are you currently working on another book? If so, can you give us an idea as to the subject, when your readers can expect to see it and will it carry on the art/space relationship?

Yes, I’m collaborating with seven other authors on another book for Springer. It will be called Alien Seas, and showcases the strange oceans on other planets and moons, from the 100-km-deep water oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa to the liquid metallic hydrogen oceans at the heart of the gas giants. I will be doing art for this book, too. Some of it is proving to be the most challenging I’ve done in years. It’s been very fun, and a privilege to work with these fine scientists. The book is due out some time in 2012.

Michael, it's been a pleasure talking to you and good luck with Alien Skies

Paul Rumsby
September 2011
Images included with the kind permission of Michael Carrol

Review

This is a great book detailing the atmosphere and weather systems of the planets and moons of our Solar system and the probes that have visited them.

Carroll writes with an enthusiasm for the subject that holds our attention right up to the last page. Anyone with an interest in planetary science or space exploration is going to want this book on their shelf. For readers with a general curiosity in astronomy this book will almost certainly leave you wanting more.

The book features a mixture of images, diagrams and Carroll's own art which gives the book a distinctly unique feel. The book concludes with a round up of future missions including probes close to launch and those still on the drawing board.

We are looking forward to Carroll's next project Alien Seas.