posted 02-11-2015 02:12 PM               

On a sad note, Dr. Michael Meltzer passed away rather suddenly on Sunday [Feb. 8].

Michael had written two books that our office published: "Mission to Jupiter: A History of the Galileo Project" and "When Biospheres Collide: A History of NASA's Planetary Protection Programs." He also wrote a history of the Cassini spacecraft program that Springer-Praxis published just last month.

A warm, friendly person who combined a scientist's technical knowledge with the ability to write historically for lay audiences, Michael contributed significantly to the success of the NASA History Program in recent years and will be greatly missed. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.

Michael Meltzer is a full-time writer of space exploration books and an environmental scientist and engineer. Meltzer worked as an environmental engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1990 to 2006.

Before that, he was a senior environmental scientist at Jacobs Engineering Group. He holds a doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA and a masters degree in Geophysics and a bachelors degree in Physics from University of California at Berkeley. Meltzer has designed the curricula for two college-level classes.

His books include "When Biospheres Collide" (NASA, 2011) and "Mission to Jupiter" (NASA, 2009) and a textbook entitled "Passive & Active Solar Heating Technology" (Prentice-Hall, 1985).