Brian
T. O’Leary (born on January 27, 1940 in Boston, Massachusetts
- Died July 28, 2011) received
his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California,
Berkeley (1967) and
was in the NASA trainee program at Space Sciences Laboratory,
Department of Astronomy,
University of California. He was one of the
eleven civilian scientists-astronauts selected by NASA
on July 26, 1967 for the Apollo Program, specifically
for their scientific education rather than pilot backgrounds.
Having just completed his
Ph.D. work on Mars, he
was selected to go to Mars at a time when it was in NASA's
program planning. The program has been delayed
for many years, therefore Dr. O'Leary has never had the
privilege of experiencing actual space flight.
Dr.
O'Leary wrote the book Mars 1999
to describe the enormous economic, political and scientific
benefits of sending an international mission to the Red
Planet by the turn of the millennium. The book was hailed
by James Michener as "an exciting journey into
space" and by Senator Alan Cranston as "a
compelling scenario of global harmony." Brian
O'Leary has taught at Cornell,
Caltech,
Berkeley and Princeton. He published over 100
peer-reviewed papers in the fields of planetary science
and astronautics. He appeared on national TV talk shows
such as the Donahue Show,
the Today Show, the
Late Show and the
Larry king Show.
His
burning interest was in what he called the transformative
sciences which is described in his book Exploring
Inner and Outer Space where he'd boldly expand
the boundaries of traditional Western science into such
taboo subjects as extraterrestrial intelligence, UFOs,
consciousness research, stone megaliths, and physics beyond
space-time.
Education
Graduated
from Belmont High School, Belmont, Massachusetts, in 1957;
received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Physics from Williams College in 1961,
a Masters of Arts in Astronomy from Georgetown University
in 1964,
and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Astronomy from the University
of California at Berkeley in 1967.
Organizations
Fellow
of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
(1975-); secretary of the Planetology
Section, American
Geophysical Union (1970-1976); member of
the nominating committee of the American
Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences
(1976-1979); team leader of the Asteroidal
Resources Group, NASA
Ames Summer Study on Space Settlements
(1977); board member of the American
Space Foundation (1983-1985); chairman
of the board of directors of the Institute
for Security and Cooperation in Space (1987-1988);
founding board member of the International
Association for New Science (1990-2000); founding
president of the New
Energy Movement (2003); and fellow, World
Innovation Foundation, (2007-).
Special
Honors
Recipient
of NASA Distinguished Group Achievement
Award, Mariner 10 Mission, 1975; Eagle Scout.
Publications
Authored
or co-authored more than one hundred peer-reviewed scientific
papers, including: Rea and O'Leary, Visible
polarization data of Mars, Nature, 206, 1138,
1965; The influence of lunar
mascons on its dynamical figure, Nature, 220,
1309, 1968; O'Leary and Rea, On
the composition of the Venus clouds, Journal
of Geophysical Research, 1968; O'Leary, Campbell and Sagan,
Lunar and planetary mass concentrations,
Science, 165, 651, 1969. Has also been an editor for several
books, including, Space Manufacturing
from Non-terrestrial Materials, edited by O'Neill
and O'Leary, vol. 57 of Progress
in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA, 1977;
Space Resources and Space Settlements,
edited by O'Neill, Billingham, Gilbreath and O'Leary,
NASA SP-428, 1979; and The New
Solar System, edited by Beatty, O'Leary and
Chaikin, Sky Publishing Co. and Cambridge University Press,
1981. Has also authored more than ten books, including:
The Making of an Ex-Astronaut;
Houghton Mifflin, 1970; The Fertile
Stars; Everest House, 1981; Project
Space Station, Stackpole Books,1983; Mars
1999, Stackpole Books, 1987; Exploring
Inner and Outer Space: A Scientist's Perspective on Personal
and Planetary Transformation, North Atlantic
Books, 1989; Miracle in the Void,
self published, 1996; Re-Inheriting
the Earth, self published, 2003; and The
Energy Solution Revolution, self published,
2008.
Experience
From
1961 to 1962, Brian O’Leary was
a physicist at the Aeronomy and Meteorology Division at
the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; from
1964 to 1967, he was a research
assistant at Space Sciences Laboratory, at the University
of California at Berkeley. After resigning
from NASA, he held numerous faculty positions at various
universities, including: from 1968 to 1969, he was
a research associate astronomer and, from 1969
to 1971, he was assistant professor
of astronomy at Cornell University, in Ithaca,
New York; from 1970 to 1971, he was
a visiting member of the faculty at the California Institute
of Technology and a deputy team leader for the Mariner
10 Venus-Mercury TV Science Team; from 1971
to 1972, he was a visiting associate
professor at the school of law,
teaching technology assessment,
at the University of California at Berkeley
and he was a senior consultant
at the NASA Ames Research Center; from 1972
to 1975, he was an assistant
professor of astronomy and science policy assessment at
Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts;
from 1976 to 1981, he was a research
staff and lecturer for the Department of Physics at Princeton
University in New Jersey; from 1980 to 1982,
he was a consultant for the MIT
Sloane School at Cambridge, Massachusetts;
from 1986 to 1987 he was a visiting
lecturer in physics at California State University
in Long Beach; and in 2003 he was
a professor in the Masters Degree Program in Transformational
Psychology at the University of Philosophical Research
at Los Angeles, California. O’Leary has also held
several non-academic positions, including: from 1975 to
1976, he was a special staff
consultant on energy for the U.S. House Interior Committee
subcommittee on energy and the environment,
and a consultant for the U.S.
Senate Government Operations Committee; from
1979 to 1980, he was the special
projects editor for Sky & Telescope
Magazine in Cambridge, Massachusetts and, from
1982 to 1987, he was a senior
scientist at Science Applications International Corporation
in Hermosa Beach, California.
NASA
Experience
Brian
O’Leary was selected as a scientist-astronaut by
NASA in August 1967. After completing a
Ph.D. thesis on the physical properties of the Martian
surface, O'Leary was specifically selected
for a potential manned Mars mission when it was still
in NASA's program planning. When that program was cancelled
in 1968, he resigned from the astronaut program because
of lack of prospects for a space flight. During the following
decades, his relationship with NASA continued as
an academic scientist in unmanned planetary exploration,
advanced concepts for space manufacturing of non-terrestrial
materials, formulating low-cost scenarios for joint U.S.-Soviet
manned missions to Phobos and Mars, and helping NASA design
a habitable space station. Most recently, he
had investigated advanced antigravity propulsion and free
energy concepts as an outside scientist.
He
is survived by his wife, Meredith, and two children from
a former marriage. He enjoyed photography, hiking, cartooning,
jazz piano and yoga.
Sources:
http://www.brianoleary.info/Astronaut.htm
MUFON 1990 International UFO Symposium
Proceedings
