The Planetary Society facts for kids
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| Formation | 1980 |
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| Type | Non-governmental and nonprofit foundation, 501(c)(3) |
| Registration no. | C0946337 |
| Location | |
| Fields | Space advocacy |
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Members
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60,000 |
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Key people
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Louis Friedman, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, Bruce C. Murray |
The Planetary Society is a group from the United States that works all over the world. It's a nonprofit organization, meaning it doesn't aim to make money. They do research, teach people about space, and encourage governments to support space projects. They focus on astronomy (studying stars and planets), planetary science (understanding planets), and space exploration.
Famous astronomer Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman started it in 1980. Today, about 60,000 people from over 100 countries are members. The Society's main goals are to explore our Solar System, find objects that might come close to Earth, and search for life beyond our planet. Their mission is to "Empower the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration."
The Planetary Society strongly supports NASA's space funding and missions. They talk to lawmakers and encourage their members in the United States to contact their representatives. This helps get support for NASA's budget.
Besides teaching the public, The Planetary Society has also funded projects. These include solar sails and experiments with tiny living things in space. In June 2005, the Society launched the Cosmos 1 spacecraft. This was to test if solar sailing was possible, but the rocket failed soon after launch.
The LightSail project was planned as a series of three solar sail tests. This was later changed to two missions. LightSail 1 launched on May 20, 2015. It successfully showed how its solar sail could unfold on June 7, 2015. LightSail 2 launched on June 25, 2019. It successfully used sunlight to change its orbit around Earth.
The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE) was a two-part program. It was designed to see if tiny living things (microorganisms) could survive in space. The first part flew on STS-134, the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight in 2011. The second part was on Russia's Fobos-Grunt mission. This mission tried to go to Mars' moon Phobos and return. However, it failed to leave Earth's orbit.
Contents
History of The Planetary Society
The Planetary Society began in 1980. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman founded it. They wanted to build public support for space exploration and the search for life beyond Earth. Carl Sagan led the Society until he passed away in 1996. He used his fame to help influence politics. For example, he helped protect the SETI program from being canceled by Congress in 1981.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Society pushed for scientific and technological goals. This led to more interest in rover-based planetary exploration. It also helped with NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.
Besides its political work, the Society has created many space-related projects. The SETI program started with Paul Horowitz's Suitcase SETI. It has grown to include searches using radio and light waves. These searches happen from both the northern and southern parts of Earth. SETI@home is one of the Society's most famous SETI projects. It's the largest distributed computing experiment on Earth.
Other projects include the Mars Microphone instrument. This flew on the failed Mars Polar Lander project. The Society also developed two LightSail projects. These were solar sail technology tests. They were designed to see if space travel is possible using only sunlight.
What The Planetary Society Does
The Planetary Society currently has several main program areas. Each area includes different projects:
- Supporting and teaching about space
- Studying planets outside our Solar System
- Developing new space technologies
- Taking part in international space missions
- Exploring Mars
- Learning about objects close to Earth
- The search for life beyond Earth
How The Planetary Society is Organized
The Planetary Society is run by a group of 12 volunteer directors. These directors are chosen because they are passionate about space exploration. The Board has a chairman, a President, a Vice President, and an Executive Committee. They usually meet twice a year to decide the Society's plans and future goals.
New directors are chosen from different sources. These include current Board members, Society members, staff, and space experts. On June 7, 2010, the Society announced that science educator Bill Nye would become its new executive director.
Science and Technology Projects
The Planetary Society supports science and technology projects. These projects help lead to more space exploration. All of these projects are paid for by the Society's members and people who donate money. Some of their projects include:
- Earthdials
- FINDS Exo-Earths (finding planets outside our solar system)
- Micro-Rovers for Assisting Humans
- Mars Climate Sounder
- Pioneer anomaly research
- Near-Earth Objects Research
- Planetrek
- Laser Bees
- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- Solar sailing with Cosmos 1 and the LightSail project
- Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
- SETI@home
The Planetary Report Magazine
Planetary Report is the main magazine of The Planetary Society. It comes out four times a year and is known around the world. The magazine has articles and colorful photos. It gives full details about discoveries on Earth and other planets. It changed from coming out every two months to every three months in June 2011.
This magazine reaches 60,000 members of The Planetary Society worldwide. It shares news about planetary missions, spacefaring nations, and space explorers. It also covers debates in planetary science and the latest findings in space exploration. Since September 2018, Emily Lakdawalla has been the editor.
Planetary Radio Podcast
The Planetary Society also creates Planetary Radio. This is a weekly 30-minute radio show and podcast. Sarah Al-Ahmed hosts and produces it. The show mostly features interviews and phone calls with scientists, engineers, project managers, artists, writers, and astronauts. These guests share their insights into the current state of space exploration.
Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP)
In 2022, The Planetary Society gave out its first grants through the STEP program. STEP stands for Science and Technology Empowered by the Public. The first teams to receive grants were from the University of California, Los Angeles. Their project was for SETI. Another team from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, received a grant for a planetary defense project.
UnmannedSpaceflight.com Website
The website UnmannedSpaceflight.com gets its funding from the Planetary Society. It uses special software called Invision Power Board for its internet forum.
See also
In Spanish: Sociedad Planetaria para niños
- List of astronomical societies
