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Our FoundersThe Planetary Society Founders’ Statement
by Bruce Murray and Louis D. Friedman In 1980, the United States, which had so boldly sent human emissaries to walk on the Moon, was on the verge of pulling back from the new frontier of space. NASA and the U.S. political leadership were content to limit space missions to operations as a “trucking company” to and from low Earth orbit. Planetary exploration, so enthusiastically begun in the wake of Sputnik and Explorer, was to be eliminated from NASA’s charge, even as Voyager was in the midst of its triumphant mission to the outer planets. We were sitting there watching the coffin being nailed shut, and what was inside was imagination and vision. With Carl Sagan, we determined to change that. We believed that many members of the public—inside the United States and outside—passionately wanted the great adventure of space to continue. The trick would be to convince the politicians that this was true. We chose to do this by forming a grass-roots organization for those who cared about space exploration, so together we formed The Planetary Society. We set as the mission of our new organization “to promote planetary exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life.” Over 25 years, that mission has grown with The Planetary Society, so that our mission statement now reads, “to inspire the people of Earth—through research, education, private ventures, and public participation—to explore other worlds and seek other life.” In 1980, we knew of nine planets to explore. Today, our solar system family has expanded, with planet-sized bodies being discovered in the outer reaches of our Sun’s influence. Around other stars in our galaxy, more than 100 new planets have been discovered in just the past decade. There are now many more worlds for The Planetary Society to dream of exploring. Even so, it has become more difficult over the past 25 years for us to achieve those dreams. The political landscape of Earth has altered drastically. The first wave of space explorers was driven by the tensions of the Cold War, and that impetus has vanished. Despite our steady activism encouraging international cooperation, nationalistic thinking still dominates space exploration. There is less talk of cooperation for missions planned to explore the Moon and Mars in the next decade than there was for missions to comet Halley in the 1980s. Sadly, despite our hopes and expectations, human explorers set foot on the Moon more than 35 years ago but have gone no further. The dream of seeing footprints on Mars remains too many years from achievement. The future needs us more than ever! So this, our 25th year, has been a time to reflect not only on our past but especially on the future of The Planetary Society; the world is changing, and so have the motivations for exploring space. We begin our second quarter-century by embarking on a new age of exploration. You have seen this most dramatically in our attempt to launch the first solar sail spacecraft. The launch failed, but we are already working toward our next mission, and we have no doubt that our private nonprofit membership organization will again push back the limits of what is deemed possible. The Planetary Society has taken as its motto “We make it happen.” Twenty-five years ago, we thought that simply reversing the downward slide of planetary exploration. We see now how much more is possible, even for a grass-roots public interest group founded by three idealistic and impassioned friends who believed the people of Earth can, must, and will explore other worlds. On to our future!
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