Harold Masursky

Harold Masursky ( born December 23, 1922 in Fort Wayne, Indiana; † 24 August 1990) was an American geologist and astronomer.

Masursky studied at Yale University and then worked for eleven years with the U.S. Geological Survey. He then moved on to NASA and was concerned with the surface of the Moon and the planets, where he was responsible for the selection of suitable landing sites for reentry vehicles and unmanned space probes. During the Apollo program, he was a member of the working group, which accompanied the moon landings, and then evaluated the data obtained. In 1971, he led the working group on monitoring of the planet Mars by the spacecraft Mariner 9 Four years later, he sought the landing sites of the Viking probes from. Later he took part in the exploration of the surface of Venus using radar probes.

In his memory, an impact crater on Mars and the asteroid ( 2685 ) Masursky was named