On a journey to Jupiter
Dr Duncan Young had the planets and stars in his sights from a young age, writes
When Dr Duncan Young was a child he skipped school so he could watch Halley’s Comet live.
The 42-year-old former Taranaki man, who was a self-confessed ‘‘geeky child’’, is now living out his childhood dream working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the US to plan a mission to Jupiter.
‘‘I remember as a child at school in Ratapiko writing reports about space probes and here I am involved in Nasa’s next great space probe.
‘‘They let me go home because they knew I’d be very sad if I didn’t get to see Halley’s Comet live.’’
Growing up in rural Taranaki he was an avid reader and always knew he was going to do something to do with science. ‘‘I spent a lot of time at Inglewood Public Library and the New Plymouth Public Library.
‘‘A lot of people go into New Plymouth, the big smoke, to see the beach and whatever but I’d frequently just go out there and go to the library and read books about space and science.’’
Young’s parents also helped to facilitate his passion for science and space. ‘‘I joined up with the Taranaki Active Astronomers Group which was run by Rod Austin. He’s one of the great comet hunters, he’d go out to Everett Park and just scan the skies looking for comets.
‘‘My mum would take me out to monthly meetings with those guys.’’
After finishing Inglewood High School, Young went to the University of Canterbury and was faced with a difficult decision – astronomy or geology.
‘‘Astronomy had a lot of maths and geology had field trips and beer – so I ended up taking geology.’’
Towards the end of his geology degree Young reignited his interest in space and realised he could do both.
‘‘I began reading about planetary science again and realising that I could get back into the space sort of thing from the geological perspective and so I applied to some universities in the States after graduating from Canterbury and ended up going to Southern Methodist University in Dallas where I studied the planet Venus.
‘‘Venus is a fascinating target but there is no potential for life on Venus, the surface temperature is something like 400 degrees Celsius so there wasn’t a whole lot of funding on continuing to study Venus so I came back to New Zealand.’’
It was his time studying Venus, however, that led to his next adventure.
‘‘Venus is covered with these clouds of sulfuric acid so we can’t directly see the surface so we have to use radar to see the surface.
‘‘There was a group in New Zealand from the University of Texas that were going to Antarctica and they were going to do a radar survey of the largest glacier in the world, which had previously been unexplored, and so they knew I knew about radar so they picked me up, sent me in to Antarctica for four-anda-half months for this massive survey of this very important glacier – we were the first ones there really surveying there.’’
Although his Antarctic expedition meant he missed his brother’s wedding due to weather delays, Young said it was a thrilling experience which resulted in him working for the University of Texas in a number of different roles.
‘‘Really what I’ve been doing for the past decade is working on Antarctica and the problems there using airborne geophysics, we’ve been using DC-3s – aircraft that were involved in World War II.
‘‘I’ve had the privilege of leading nine expeditions to Antarctica now. I’ve also led three expeditions to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.
‘‘You use all the same tools for looking at icy moons of other planets and it turns out we think the largest ocean in the Solar System is not on
Earth, but there is this moon of Jupiter called Europa, which is out of Jupiter, and has an ocean twice the size of Earth’s.
‘‘It is under a crust of ice because it is very cold out there, the sun is 25 times fainter.’’
The team hopes to find if Europa can host life or if it already does.
‘‘We put together a proposal working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a big Nasa-supported laboratory in Los Angeles, to build a radar instrument and it will go on a mission which will be launching in 2022.
‘‘If we get the big rocket we’ll get there in 2025 and if we have to go ahead with a smaller rocket we won’t get there until about 2030 – so we hope for the big rocket.’’
Young is now based in Austin, Texas, where he is married. ‘‘She’s a Texan, which is distinct from American,’’ he laughed.
‘‘We got married in Mexico. We actually ended up getting married in the eye of Hurricane Alexander, it hit just as we were getting married.’’
He’s a proud New Zealander and even though he could become one, is thinking seriously before becoming a United States citizen.
‘‘It’s definitely a faster pace than maybe some other countries. It’s interesting, the politics are very different from New Zealand.