Nathan Bridges, a planetary research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), died on April 26. He was 50 years old.
Bridges was a senior expert on the geology of Mars, remote sensing techniques, and the role of wind-driven processes in planetary erosion and sedimentation on Earth, Mars, and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
Among his many important findings, Bridges discovered that wind is as important a geologic process on Mars as it is on Earth, despite the much lower density of the Martian atmosphere.
He was an integral part of multiple Mars missions and instrument teams: he served as a Co-Investigator on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a Co-Investigator on the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity rover) ChemCam instrument, and a science team member on two Mars-2020 rover instruments, SuperCam and the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer.
Bridges is survived by his wife Karen, daughter Sarah, and son Matthew.
The complete obituary can be read here: http://civspace.jhuapl.edu/News-and-Events/article.php?num=20170512
A tribute to Bridges from the Planetary Society can be found here:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2017/0503-a-tribute-to-nathan-bridges.html