A native of England, Scott, a civil engineering professor at Caltech, specialized in soils. Caltech runs NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has primary responsibility for unmanned space probes. In the early 1960s, JPL was tasked to land several probes on the moon in preparation for the manned Apollo moon landings.
One big question NASA had: would the lunar soil support the weight of a manned spacecraft, or would Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin sink to their deaths in loose dust? JPL launched several probes called Surveyor. Scott designed a system for Surveyor to scoop up and evaluate the surface conditions to ensure the astronauts would survive their trip. Based on experiments done by Surveyor 3 in 1967 and Surveyor 7 in 1968, Dr. Scott concluded the lunar soil would in fact hold up to the weight of the astronauts and their landing craft.
Everyone remembers Armstrong’s first words when he stepped out on the soil, but his second words were for Scott: “I sink in about an eighth of an inch. I’ve left a print on the surface.” He also helped analyze soil samples brought back from the moon. Scott’s main work was perhaps of even greater import: he studied what soils did during earthquakes, helping to improve the earthquake survivability of buildings and dams. He died at home August 16 from cancer. He was 76.