He was the handsome face of science in the 1960's - the brash, intelligent, and "with it" face of a younger generation stepping up to receive the mantle of those who gone before. The schools were bursting with a "youth boom" and colleges were being challenged to house and educate the vast numbers. Add to the government recognition that the US was ranking low in science and math's and the space race challenge took on a more intense focus. Money was pumped into schools and science curriculums. Step up in a new era of television and film and a focus on "youth" as the answer to the problems....and the gangly young academic struggling to find his own particular square value and worth in his exciting field of astronomy...is suddenly on the scene. Within two decades he will be the face and voice of the modern generation as he uses science blended with imagination and poetry to play the piper to lure people into the brave new frontiers of - science.
Many people were more familiar with Sagan from his popular Public Television specials in the 1980's where the term "billions and billions" took on new meaning and the claim we are "star stuff" resonated with a society balancing "New Age" with age-old in a strange juggling act.
Oddly, however, it is in the pages of the newsletter for A.P.R.O. that his name may have first appeared to those intrigued by the idea of UFO's. In the 1962-63 files of the newsletter editor-researcher Coral Lorenzen tried to keep abreast of significant events, papers, discussion, and works from many scientific fields. In May of 1962, she wrote that Dr. Carl E. Sagan of the University of California had stated in public that "Mars is the most likely abode of life in our solar system." His comments were part of a "Voice of America" science lecture broadcast.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's , despite public proclamations of the planet being dead, many high level scientists openly discussed and believed just what Sagan proclaimed.
He was identified as one of the few astronomers willing to "extend himself into a discussion of the likelihood of space visitors..." In November 1962, the astronomer made comments that the Earth might well have been visited many times in the past. He presented the idea as provisional but was seriously willing to dialogue. (APRO, March 1963).
Reviewing his resume it is learned that in 1960-1962 he was a Miller Fellow in California at a University. In 1961, he was in a special program at Harvard (where Menzel and Wipple were ensconced). He kept a profile there from 1963-1968; he requested tenure from Harvard but was denied. Then, in 1966, he appears as part of an ad hoc committee reevaluating many UFO cases as part of a government move to express how serious they were (they could point to this work and the approach Condon study as good faith efforts).
Academic life is often harsh and competitive. Funding is crucial for most research based scientists. In the era of the 1960's-1990's the number one science funding source was the U.S. Government.
As time passes, there may be much more learned about the role scientists played in researching, debunking, and - eventually - disclosing the truth behind the mystery of the UAP's.
