MARY GOLDA ROSS
“I FIRST LEARNED ABOUT MARY GOLDA ROSS UPON RECEIVING THE ASSIGNMENT TO DESIGN THIS COIN CELEBRATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN INDIANS TO THE UNITED STATES SPACE PROGRAM. HER ACHIEVEMENTS DEEPLY IMPRESSED ME, AND I WAS EXCITED FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO TELL HER STORY THROUGH NUMISMATIC ART.”
Design for 2019 entry in the ongoing Native American $1 coin series, this one honoring American Indian contribution to the Space Program.
HOW TO GET TO
SPACE 20 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2018 T
he design for the 2019 Ameri- can Indian coin features an equation representative of Mary Golda Ross’s contribu- tion to the U.S. space program and her skill in mathematics.
Because much of her work remains classified, the U.S. Mint staff worked with Willis Jenkins, a NASA engineer from the agency’s Helio- physics Division, to determine an appropri- ate equation. The challenge was especially meaningful to Jenkins for two reasons. “Mary Golda Ross worked on designs for rockets and I have managed rockets in my career. Also, she was of Cherokee descent and I believe my mother’s family is as well.” The equation, which is seen in the clouds
on the design, was used to help determine the velocity needed to leave the Earth and travel to a distant planet such as Mars. Jenkins identified the equation as “an ex- ample of a formula that Ms. Ross would have
used to calculate interplanetary space travel, determine the departure plane orbit and transfer orbit energy.
V2∞ = V2
- — 2µ
r V, is the speed of an orbiting body
V∞, is the orbit velocity when the orbit distance tends to infinity
μ = GM, is the standard gravitational parameter of the primary body, with mass M
r, is the distance of the orbiting body center
“Obviously,” says Jenkins, “there is no simple formula to be had for the complexity of go- ing into space and reaching a planet. Several calculations are needed to reach space and the surrounding planets for which orbital dynam- ics play a major part in the operation. There are just too many variables.”
IMAGE COURTESY OF U.S. MINT
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