MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

Biography - Robert Gold is the chief technologist for the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD. He is a physicist who has specialized in heliospheric and planetary particles and fields research. Dr. Gold is the science payload manager for the MESSENGER mission, which includes the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. He held the same role for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, the first to orbit and land on an asteroid. He served as the APL project scientist for NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission, which provides early warning of interplanetary disturbances before they hit Earth. Dr. Gold conceived the Ilion mission concept to rendezvous and land on a Jovian Trojan asteroid, with a spacecraft that uses Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generators for power. He has written more than 75 scientific publications and asteroid 4955 Gold was named for his work on the NEAR mission