CONTENTS PAGE

FIRST WORD Opinion Ben Bova 6

OMNIBUS Contributors 8

EARTH Environment Eleanor Smith 14

LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 18

SPACE Comment David C Webb 22

MIND Behavior Philip Hilts 26

VIDEO The Arts Gregory Miller 28

FILM The Arts Jeff Rovin 30

UFO UPDATE Report E. Lee Speigel 32

CONTINUUM Data Bank 35

PROTONS ARE NOT FOREVER Article Robert March 44

OUT OF LUCK Fiction Walter Tevis 52

SATURN ENCOUNTER Article Charles Kohlhase 64

1 1 SING THE BODY ELECTRIC Article Kathleen McAuliffe 70

CELESTIAL VISITATIONS Pictorial Gilbert Williams 76

J ARNOLD MANDELL Interview William K. Stuckey 82

| PRIMETIME Fiction Norman Spinrad CD I 03

» NEBULA Pictorial Marc Kaplan 92

CAMPAIGN *80: A COMPUTER ANALYSIS Article Dick Teresi and Owen Davies 100

PEOPLE Names and Faces Dick Teresi 126_

INNOVATIONS New Products 130

EXPLORATIONS Travel Phyllis Wollman 133

i COMPETITION RESULTS Double Dactyls Scot Morris 135

STARS Astronomy Mark R. Chartrand III 141 _

WHOOPER SWANS Phenomena Teiji Saga 142_

| GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 144

| LAST WORD Opinion David Saltman 146

| PHOTO CREDITS 132 ——-—

SATURN

ENCOUNTER

When it’s all over, just under

nine years from now, we’re

going to look back on Voyager

as the greatest mission of

planetary discovery in the his-

tory of the American space

program. The two Voyager

probes will have visited as

many as four giant planets and

an impressive number of their

three dozen moons.

Voyager's primary goal is to

learn about the vast planetary

systems of Jupiter and Saturn.

The fantastic discoveries

around Jupiter during March

and July of 1979 far surpassed

all expectations. The pictures

gathered by these deep-

space robots proved more

able to fire the imagination

than any achievement since

the first lunar landing. Io,

Europa, Ganymede, and Cal-

listo made headlines; the

largest of lo's eight volcanoes

appeared on the covers of

three national magazines all in

the same week.

Both spacecraft are still in

good health. Voyager 1 is

rapidly closing on Saturn, its

closest approach scheduled

for 6:46 pm. EST, November 12.

Serious observations of Saturn

began on August 22 and will

continue through December

15. After the probe leaves

Saturn, it will pass out of the

solar system without meeting

other planets. Voyager 2, how-

ever, will arrive at Saturn next

August 25, then go on to

Uranus and Neptune

The elegant Voyager flight

paths were chosen from nearly

10,000 possibilities. Voyager

2’s gravity-assisted trajectory

from Jupiter to Saturn, Uranus,

and Neptune, often known as

the Grand Tour, cannot be

flown again for 172 years.

Voyager 1 should show us a

great deal about Saturn's

domain. The huge gas giant,...