The University of Arizona Special Collections is pleased to announce the completion of the archival processing of the Gerard P. Kuiper Papers (MS 480) along with an online guide to the collection. Kuiper’s papers document exciting space discoveries from the mid-twentieth century including innovations that led to landing the first man on the moon.   

Gerard P. Kuiper (1905-1973) is often considered to the father of modern planetary science.  He was born in the Netherlands in 1905 and received his PhD in Astronomy in 1933 from Leiden University. He worked at the Harvard College Observatory, the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, and relocated to Tucson in 1960 to establish the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona. He is known for his many discoveries such as the moons of Neptune and Uranus, the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars, and his correct prediction that the rings of Saturn are composed of particles of ice.  He was a part of the successful Ranger VII mission which obtained high resolution pictures of the moon’s surface that were beneficial in the selection of the landing site for the Surveyor and Apollo missions.  He also famously proposed the idea of a region of small planets and comets beyond Neptune that is now known as the Kuiper Belt. 

The materials in Special Collections consist of the personal and professional papers of Gerard Peter Kuiper. The bulk of the material consists of his work at the University of Chicago and at the University of Arizona and his correspondence with other noted astronomers and scientists. His research materials include his work with NASA on the Ranger, Apollo, Mariner, Surveyor, Viking, and Orbiter Projects during the late 1950s through the early 1970s. Other items in the collection are his administrative papers pertaining to the Lunar Planetary Laboratory, publications, newspaper clippings, and photographs and films. The material also documents Kuiper's personal experience as a member of the ALSOS Mission following World War II in which scientists from Britain and the United States investigated the German progress on nuclear and chemical research.

A new film about UA’s work in the space race, entitled “Desert Moon”, uses archival photographs and footage from the Kuiper Papers.  The film is screened at the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium.

- Maurita Baldock