James Van Allen
James Alfred Van Allen (Mount Pleasant, Iowa, September 7, 1914 - Iowa City, August 9, 2006) was an American physicist who was associated with the University of Iowa. The Van Allen belts were named after him after the satellites Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 had shown their existence in 1958. Van Allen had insisted that these satellites had to have a geiger counter on board to detect loaded particles.
Van Allen was a declared opponent of manned spacecraft. The efficiency of manned space saw him very skinny and all kinds of investigations could be done better, more accurately and cheaper by unmanned spacecraft, so he considered.
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