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The Planetary Society is a large, publicly supported, non-government and non-profit organization that has many research projects related to astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
. It was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. was an United States astronomer, Astrochemistry, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences....
, Bruce Murray
Bruce C. Murray

Bruce C. Murray was born November 30, 1931 in New York City, NY. He is a professor emeritus of planetary science and geology at Caltech and was Director of the JPL from April 1, 1976 to June 30, 1982....
, and Louis Friedman
Louis Friedman

Louis Friedman is an United States astronautics engineer and space spokesperson. He was born in New York and raised in the Bronx. Dr. Friedman was a co-founder of The Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce C....
, and has members from 125 countries around the world. The society's mission is "To inspire and involve the world's public in space exploration through advocacy, projects, and education."

The Society is dedicated to the exploration of Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 and the rest of the Solar System
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
, the search for Near Earth Objects
Near-Earth object

A Near-Earth object is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into close proximity with the Earth.All NEOs have a perihelion < 1.3 Astronomical unit) ....
, and the search for extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
.

The Society launched the Cosmos 1
Cosmos 1

Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft was launched into space at 15:46:09 Eastern Daylight Time on June 21, 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea....
 craft in June 2005 to test the feasibility of Solar sail
Solar sail

Solar sails are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is about 10-5 pascal at Earth's distance from the Sun and decreases by the square of the distance from the light source , but unlike rockets, solar sails require no reaction mass....
ing, but the satellite's launch rocket failed shortly after liftoff.






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The Planetary Society is a large, publicly supported, non-government and non-profit organization that has many research projects related to astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
. It was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. was an United States astronomer, Astrochemistry, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences....
, Bruce Murray
Bruce C. Murray

Bruce C. Murray was born November 30, 1931 in New York City, NY. He is a professor emeritus of planetary science and geology at Caltech and was Director of the JPL from April 1, 1976 to June 30, 1982....
, and Louis Friedman
Louis Friedman

Louis Friedman is an United States astronautics engineer and space spokesperson. He was born in New York and raised in the Bronx. Dr. Friedman was a co-founder of The Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce C....
, and has members from 125 countries around the world. The society's mission is "To inspire and involve the world's public in space exploration through advocacy, projects, and education."

The Society is dedicated to the exploration of Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 and the rest of the Solar System
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
, the search for Near Earth Objects
Near-Earth object

A Near-Earth object is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into close proximity with the Earth.All NEOs have a perihelion < 1.3 Astronomical unit) ....
, and the search for extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
.

Planetary Society
The Society launched the Cosmos 1
Cosmos 1

Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft was launched into space at 15:46:09 Eastern Daylight Time on June 21, 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea....
 craft in June 2005 to test the feasibility of Solar sail
Solar sail

Solar sails are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is about 10-5 pascal at Earth's distance from the Sun and decreases by the square of the distance from the light source , but unlike rockets, solar sails require no reaction mass....
ing, but the satellite's launch rocket failed shortly after liftoff. It is now raising seed funding for the next solar sail
Solar sail

Solar sails are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is about 10-5 pascal at Earth's distance from the Sun and decreases by the square of the distance from the light source , but unlike rockets, solar sails require no reaction mass....
 spacecraft.

Members

The Planetary Society's current Board of Directors includes the following:
  • Daniel Geraci, Chairman of the Board
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and, since 1996, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan's Upper West Side....
    , President
  • Bill Nye
    Bill Nye

    William Sanford Nye also known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy," is an United States comedian, Television program, Science education and mechanical engineer....
    , Vice President
  • Louis Friedman
    Louis Friedman

    Louis Friedman is an United States astronautics engineer and space spokesperson. He was born in New York and raised in the Bronx. Dr. Friedman was a co-founder of The Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce C....
    , Executive Director
  • Heidi Hammel
    Heidi Hammel

    Heidi B. Hammel is a Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of Research at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.In 1994, she led the team that investigated Jupiter's visible-wavelength response to the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 using the Hubble Space Telescope....
  • Wesley Huntress
    Wesley Huntress

    Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. is president of the Planetary Society in the United States and Director of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution....
  • Lon Levin
  • Alexis Livanos
  • John Logsdon
    John Logsdon

    John Logsdon is chairman of the Space Policy Institute at The George Washington University.Logsdon is on the board of directors of the Planetary Society, and was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board....
  • Christopher McKay
    Christopher McKay

    Christopher P. McKay is a planetary science at NASA Ames Research Center, studying planetary atmospheres, astrobiology, and terraforming. McKay received his PhD in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1982 and his bachelor's degree from Florida Atlantic University....
    , Advisory Council Chair
  • Bruce C. Murray
    Bruce C. Murray

    Bruce C. Murray was born November 30, 1931 in New York City, NY. He is a professor emeritus of planetary science and geology at Caltech and was Director of the JPL from April 1, 1976 to June 30, 1982....
  • Elon Musk
    Elon Musk

    Elon Musk is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of SpaceX. He was an early investor in PayPal. He is chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity....
  • Joseph Ryan
  • Steven Spielberg
    Steven Spielberg

    Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. Forbes magazine places Spielberg's net worth at $3.1 billion....
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson
    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and, since 1996, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan's Upper West Side....
  • Bijal (Bee) Thakore
  • George Yancopoulos
    George Yancopoulos

    George D. Yancopoulos born 1959 in Middle Village, New York; Chief scientific officer and president of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Dr. Yancopoulos has been elected to both the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004....


Notable members of its Advisory Council include:
  • Buzz Aldrin
    Buzz Aldrin

    Buzz Aldrin is an United States aviator and astronaut, who was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing. He was, along with Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, the first person to land on the Moon, and shortly afterward became the second person to set foot on the Moon....
  • Ray Bradbury
    Ray Bradbury

    Ray Douglas Bradbury is an United States literature, fantasy, Horror fiction, science fiction, and mystery writer.Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century....
  • David Brin
    David Brin

    Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an United States scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received both the Hugo award and Nebula Awards ....
  • Franklin Chang-Diaz
    Franklin Chang-Diaz

    Franklin Ram?n Chang-D?az is a Costa Rican-United States physics and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder for most spaceflights ....
  • Frank Drake
    Frank Drake

    Dr. Frank Donald Drake is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is most famous for founding SETI and creating the Drake equation and Arecibo Message....
  • Owen Garriott
  • Tom Jones
    Thomas David Jones

    Thomas David Jones is a United States astronaut. He was selected to the astronaut corps in 1990 and completed four space shuttle flights before retiring in 2001....
  • Jon Lomberg
    Jon Lomberg

    Jon Lomberg is an United States space artist and science journalist. He was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator for more than twenty years on many projects from 1972 until 1996....
  • Hans Mark
    Hans Mark

    Hans Michael Mark is a former United States Secretary of the Air Force and a former Deputy Administrator of NASA. He is an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy....
  • Robert Picardo
    Robert Picardo

    Robert Picardo is an Emmy Award-nominated United States actor. He may be best known for his portrayals of Dr. Dick Richards on American Broadcasting Corporation's China Beach, the Emergency Medical Hologram also known as The Doctor , on United Paramount Network's Star Trek: Voyager, as The Cowboy in Innerspace, as Joe "The Meat...
  • John Rhys-Davies
    John Rhys-Davies

    John Rhys-Davies is an England-born Welsh people actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones franchise and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in which he also voiced the ent, Treebeard....
  • Kim Stanley Robinson
    Kim Stanley Robinson

    Kim Stanley Robinson is an United States science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with M...
  • Donna Shirley
    Donna Shirley

    Donna Shirley is a former manager of Mars Exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the author of the book Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars -- and of the Team Behind the Space Robot That Has Captured the Imagination of the World....


Projects

The Planetary Society sponsors projects to seed further exploration. Members privately fund these projects:

  • Earthdials
  • Mars Stations
  • Near-Earth Objects Research and Missions
  • Planetrek
  • Political Action
  • Red Rover Goes to Mars
  • Red Rover, Red Rover
  • Scholarship
    Scholarship

    A scholarship is an award of access to an institution, or a Student financial aid award for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award....
    s
  • Search for Extraterrestrial Life
    SETI

    Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities to detect intelligent extraterrestrial life. The general approach of SETI projects is to survey the sky to detect the existence of interstellar communication from a civilization on a distant planet ? an approach widely endorsed by the scientific...
  • Solar sail
    Solar sail

    Solar sails are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is about 10-5 pascal at Earth's distance from the Sun and decreases by the square of the distance from the light source , but unlike rockets, solar sails require no reaction mass....
    ing with Cosmos 1
    Cosmos 1

    Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft was launched into space at 15:46:09 Eastern Daylight Time on June 21, 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea....


The Planetary Report

The Planetary Report
Planetary Report

The Planetary Report is the internationally recognized Planetary Society's magazine, featuring articles written by space experts and photos to provide coverage of solar system exploration and related subjects....
 is the bimonthly internationally recognized flagship magazine of The Planetary Society, featuring lively articles and full-color photos to provide comprehensive coverage of discoveries on Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
 and other planets.

This bimonthly magazine reaches over 100,000 members of The Planetary Society all over the world, with news about planetary
Planetary

Planetary means relating to a planet or planets. It can also refer to:* Planetary , a comic book series by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday* Planetary habitability, the measure of an astronomical body's potential to develop and sustain life...
 missions, spacefaring nations, intrepid explorers, planetary science controversies and the latest findings in humankind's exploration of the solar system
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
.

Planetary Radio
Planetary Radio

Planetary Radio is a weekly 30-minute radio show devoted to space exploration and astronomy, hosted and produced by Mat Kaplan and The Planetary Society....

Members of The Planetary Society also host a weekly 30 minute radio programme and podcast.

External links