Did you know that you can do more than just read?

I'm proud of the work I do on this blog -- from covering conferences like the American Geophysical Union meeting, to reporting on the launches and landings of missions like Chandrayaan-1 and Phoenix, to digging up space history like I did in my White Rock series. I regularly get kind email from you readers, so I know people enjoy all these things. But now I'd like to ask you all to do a bit more -- to show that you value The Planetary Society's website, blog, and Planetary Radio, enough to donate some money to help support them all.

All these efforts cost The Planetary Society money that can't be recouped in government grants, because to maintain our independence, we don't accept any government funds. Instead, we rely on our members and donors for support.

I'm hereby starting a pledge drive to help support The Planetary Society's website, blog, and Planetary Radio podcast. You can send in a donation here -- any amount is helpful.

I'm also looking for people to come forward with challenges to other readers. We've already received our first $500 challenge from an anonymous reader to get us started. So -- let's see if we can match his $500 in donations by Monday!

(By the way, unlike public television here in the U.S., I will not be preempting my usual blog entries to run this pledge drive. I'll keep up my usual quasi-daily posting schedule. I'll just have a regular reminder here in there that this isn't free -- we really, really need your help to keep these things going.)

If you want me to give you a shout-out here on the blog in thanks for a donation, I'm more than happy to do so -- just drop me an email!