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From The Executive Director
November 26, 2008: Beyond the Moon In November, Planetary Society President Jim Bell, Society Board member Scott Hubbard, and I rolled out Beyond the Moon: A New Roadmap for Human Space Exploration in the 21st Century at a National Press Club press conference in Washington, D.C. Also joining us at the conference was Planetary Society past-President Neil deGrasse Tyson and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. October 3, 2008: Seeing the Universe from Hawaii I was fortunate to be able to visit the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea during a recent short holiday in Hawaii. It is an inspiring place. Thanks to the fantastic advances in adaptive optics technology, as well as the observatory's new laser guide system, this ground-based telescope is now truly competitive with Hubble. September 3 , 2008: Working Together to Learn About Life Our Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE) is getting a lot of positive attention from our members and supporters. To those who donated to help us reach our goal, thank you; and to all our members, I hope you are as proud as I am to be part of an organization that boldly sends life where no one has before: on an interplanetary trip! July 9, 2008: Global Climate Change: Establishing Alliances to Ensure Earth Observation The greatest benefit of space exploration might not be what it tells us about distant worlds, but what it teaches us about ourselves -- our planet, our life, and the forces that shape them. Scientific discoveries in space teach us about our place in the universe and lead us to contemplate the interaction of humans and nature. The great engineering accomplishments of Apollo, the Space Shuttle, Voyager, the Mars rovers, and the International Space Station are beacons of accomplishment that show us what we can do. They inspire us with a "can do" attitude and a faith that we can solve the most difficult problems if we really try. June 2 , 2008: Phoenix Lands -- A Sign of Optimism Phoenix landing in the Martian arctic was truly amazing, as was seeing The Planetary Society's first Martian library, Visions of Mars, finally reach the surface of Mars. We created this project to honor those who have inspired us in the past by sending their works to the future. And -- right here, right now -- we can see it on Mars! High adventure, great drama, and never-before-seen views are moving experiences, and I find Mars landings especially moving. I believe Mars is the world on which we will determine if we will become -- or not become -- a multi-planet species. Phoenix is only the sixth successful Mars landing. That's like looking back to the year 1500 in the exploration of the Americas, or the year 1909 in the Earth's arctic. We're just getting started with our off-Earth voyages, so, it will probably be some time before our destiny is determined. April 8 , 2008 : A Plan for Mars Sample Return Mars sample return (MSR) is receiving considerable attention by NASA and ESA these days. Alan Stern, the departing Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate resurrected MSR mission planning, with a 2020 flight goal, after NASA stopped work on it three years ago when the budget for Mars exploration was cut in the Agency. ESA has been studying MSR mission development as their major mission to follow ExoMars (planned for 2013). In the early 2000s, the French and Italian space agencies participated with NASA in developing a MSR mission design that would span multiple launch opportunities. The current NASA and ESA studies promote international cooperation, and are being coordinated within the International Mars Exploration Working Group (of space agencies interested in Mars missions). February 5 , 2008 : NASA Budget: Our Members Make a Difference The newly proposed NASA budget for fiscal year 2009 (beginning in October 2008) is stirring testimony to the power and value of public support for space exploration. Just two years ago, the Administration submitted a budget with sharp cutbacks in science and continued cuts to the Earth observation program. Congress heard the outcries from the science community and public protests led by The Planetary Society, which resulted in some restoration and redirection of funds, saving many research programs and a few planned space science missions. January 8, 2008 : Scout Mission Slips: Are Future Mars Plans on a Slippery Slope? On December 21, the day after the U.S. Congress recessed for three weeks, NASA announced the delay of the 2011 Mars Scout selection due to a potential conflict of interest with a member of the review panel. NASA officials were advised to start the proposal process over to avoid a long, contentious process of protest. The extended selection process means the launch will slip to 2013. Congress has demonstrated strong support for robotic Mars exploration, and in fact, just one day earlier, Congress reasserted its view that Mars missions should be launched at every Mars opportunity -- approximately every two years. Now, we are going to miss the 2011 opportunity altogether. December 26 , 2007 - You are Part of Everything We Do The year 2007 has been a rich and rewarding one for us space explorers. It is breathtaking to consider the pace of solar system exploration -- 20 spacecraft are now beyond Earth orbit sending back data from all over the solar system. You, as a member of The Planetary Society, are part of humanity's move off Earth and out into the solar system. Right now, the names of Planetary Society members are flying around the rings of Saturn on Cassini, on the Red Planet with Spirit and Opportunity, traveling to the asteroid belt with Dawn, cruising around the Moon on Kaguya, heading toward the north pole of Mars on Phoenix, and journeying to Pluto on New Horizons. November 12 , 2007 - Human Spaceflight: With Risk, We Need Purpose I watched a dramatic and exciting space adventure on television last week. It was a gripping, scary, dangerous story that took days to unfold. The outcome of this story could have been tragic. Instead, it ended in triumph. The ratings for this show were terrible -- even among space enthusiasts, I found very few who were aware of it, and even fewer who watched it. more » October 17 , 2007 - From Moscow and Vienna: Reflecting on the Significance of the Space Age The first part of October has been replete with Sputnik anniversary commemorations and reflections. I was fortunate to be invited to be part of several in Russia -- Sputnik's home. The recognition in Russia of what is certainly one of their greatest achievements, launching the Space Age, was disappointing. There was little government attention, and top level science and space agency participation was perfunctory. However, a number of science symposia were very good, and there was an excellent exhibit of Russian space science history at the Space Research Institute. more » September 18 , 2007 - Budget Axe Falls on Mars Science Laboratory -- Science Plans for the Mission Cut NASA announced that science plans for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission are being reduced. Five of the eight science instruments are affected, either by outright removal or by constraints to their development. more » April 5 , 2007 - Society Elects New President and Adds Mission to Understand Earth I am pleased to tell you that our Board of Directors has elected Neil deGrasse Tyson as the new President of The Planetary Society. Neil has been Board Chair for the past three years, but now as President he takes a more direct role in setting Society policy and direction. I am also glad to tell you that Bill Nye the Science Guy will continue as Vice-President, and I will continue on the Board as Secretary-Treasurer and as Executive Director as I have for the past 27 years. more » March 9, 2007 - Defending the Planet This past week, I attended the Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. Despite its title, this was not a military planning exercise to deal with an alien invasion of Earth. Rather it was a meeting of scientists and engineers looking potential dangers from asteroids or comets that orbit close by Earth -- including what we might do if one were discovered on a collision course with our planet. more » February 22 , 2007 - From Vienna to the Moon Our International Lunar Decade proposal is now before the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). I've just presented it to COPUOS here at their Vienna meeting and made the point again that going to the Moon and exploring other worlds inspires hope for the future, even while this COPUOS meeting focuses on space applications to deal with problems on Earth. We see the value of such inspiration in the emergence of national lunar missions from new spacefaring countries.. more » February 16 , 2007 - From the United Nations' Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space This week I'm in Vienna, attending the Science and Technical Subcommittee Meeting of the United Nations' Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) to present The Planetary Society's proposal to establish an International Lunar Decade (ILD). Representatives of approximately 60 nations, plus about 10 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are here. The Planetary Society is one of those NGOs, having been a consultative organization to COPUOS for some 20 years. more » January 26, 2007 - Inside the Beltway Watching a congressional transition is always interesting -- a mix of hopeful ideals and mundane maneuverings -- as I was reminded this month, when I paid a visit to members of the staff in the newly organized Democratic Congress. The maneuverings usually focus around office space: one staffer I visited had her office moved from the basement of an outlying building to a suite on the third floor of Capitol itself. more » December 15 , 2006 - Follow the Water! The first week of December was quite a week for NASA: Mars Global Surveyor investigators announced the discovery of water on Mars, NASA officials described plans for landing and maintaining humans on the Moon, a shuttle was launched on a scheduled flight, and Congress adjourned after taking no action on the agency’s fiscal year 2007 budget. more » October 23 , 2006 - Belligerent Tone Mars U.S. Administration Space Policy The Bush Administration's revised space policy for the United States has elicited a lot of comment in the press, in editorials, and on the World Wide Web. It was issued late on a Friday afternoon, October 6, 2006, five weeks after its approval by the President. That seems as if the White House was hoping no one would notice. more » September 16 , 2006 - Griffin Speaks About Science and NASA NASA Administrator Michael Griffin gave a speech to employees at Goddard
Space Flight Center on September 12, in which he defended Administration
cuts to space science over the next five years and responded to criticisms
-- like those made
by The Planetary Society -- that the Administration is anti-science. August 9 , 2006 - Report From China Bill Nye the Science
Guy (and Planetary Society Vice President) and I have just returned
from Beijng, China. We attended the major international gathering
of space scientists known as COSPAR (the Committee on Space Research,
of the International Council of Scientific Unions), at which I presented
a proposal for an International
Lunar Decade. China also hosted the meeting of the International
Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), which endorsed the International
Lunar Decade, among other programs aimed at fostering cooperation among
the many nations now planning missions
to explore the Moon. July 18, 2006 - The International Lunar Decade The Moon is a stepping-stone to the solar system – metaphorically,
figuratively, and literally. It is the first rocky world to
which spacefaring nations can journey as they leave Earth. The
United States and Russia landed there in their great race of the 1960s,
but when that race was over, the two competitors turned their attention
to other worlds. June 2, 2006 - Lobbying Congress - Our Day in Washington On May 25, we took our SOS campaign to Washington. With a petition, newspaper advertisements, a high profile event, and personal lobbying of the House and Senate, we made our case to Congress that funding for NASA science must be preserved. more » May 25, 2006 - International Space Development Conference The four-day International Space Development Conference (ISDC), which we cosponsored with the National Space Society (NSS), is now history, and I’d like to share some of my reflections about the experience. more » April 10, 2006 - S.O.S. Update: The Threat Intensifies NASA is “decimating Science and virtually destroying one of the world’s premiere exploration programs for at least a decade -- and perhaps for our lifetimes.” This is the message of The Planetary Society’s Save Our Science -- S.O.S. -- campaign. In response to NASA’s proposed budget for 2007, we have proclaimed an emergency, and we are campaigning hard to restore science to its rightful place as the “crown jewel” of NASA. more » March 27, 2006 - In JapanBy temperament, I don't blog, but I do report -- and today, I am reporting from Japan, where I was invited to present a talk at a special planetary exploration symposium by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (everything I like all rolled up into one ministry!) I started the day with a visit to the Tsukuba Space Center, the principal spacecraft development center for the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and home to all the human spaceflight activities for Japan. more » March 10, 2006 - Open letter to NASA Administrator, Michael GriffinIt is been a rather heady and intense time at The Planetary Society. The political problems posed by the NASA budget -- with deep cuts in space science -- are curiously juxtaposed with the excitement about the finding of water evidence at Enceladus, the moon of Saturn, and the orbit insertion of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (The Japanese success at Hayabusa is also not lost on us, nor is the upcoming orbit insertion of Europe’s Venus Express). This juxtaposition of a bright present with the prospects of a dim future led me to write the following open letter to NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin more » February 10, 2006 - NASA 2007 Budget: Science Not Just Cut -- It Was EvisceratedEvery year the U.S. President sends his Administration's proposed budget for the next fiscal year to Congress in the week following the State of the Union address. The proposed budget for NASA is part of the whole, and as we waited during the first week of February, I sensed a great deal of tension in the space science community. Cuts were feared. Rumors and hints had been circulating for many weeks, so much so, that the Society had taken the unusual step of sending a letter to the President asking that science not be unduly cut in the NASA budget. more » January 26, 2006 - Human Spaceflight Tragedies - the Anniversary and the FutureThe next 7 days, from January 27 to February 1, will see the anniversaries of the three major tragedies in American spaceflight. On January 27, 1967, during a test-run on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, three astronauts were killed by fire in the Apollo 1 command module. On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, killing seven astronauts. And on February 1, 2003, the shuttle Columbia broke apart in reentry, killing another seven astronauts. more » December 29, 2005- Looking Back...Moving ForwardOur 25th anniversary year was a terrific celebration of The Planetary Society and a great reminder of all the wonderful things we have accomplished over the last quarter decade and the exciting things still yet to do. In all that we do, your vision and support help us carry out our mission to inspire the people of Earth to explore new worlds and seek other life. more » |
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