Articles

A.J.S. Rayl

Harris 'Bud' Schurmeier served as the first Project Manager for the Voyager mission. In 1976, just before the twin spacecraft launched, he became Assistant Lab Director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

A.J.S. Rayl

Edward C. Stone, an internationally renowned physicist, signed on as Project Scientist of the Voyager mission in 1972, responsible for coordinating the efforts of 11 teams of researchers.

A.J.S. Rayl

Jurrie van der Woude worked for 25 years in the Jet Propulsion's Laboratory's Public Affairs Office as Image Coordinator. It was Jurrie who, working closely with the Voyager imaging team, chose the best images to release to the press.

A.J.S. Rayl

Bruce C. Murray served as the only geologist on the team planning the Grand Tour, which was cancelled by NASA in 1972, but which led to Voyager the same year. He later became the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a position he held from 1976 to 1982, the early glory years of the mission.

Charlene Anderson

Home. Family. This will be Voyager's enduring legacy: It has changed forever the feelings raised by those words. Through its robotic eyes we have learned to see the solar system as our home. Through its portraits of the planets we know that they are part of our family. Apollo astronauts showed us a tiny Earth alone in the blackness of space. Now, with these images, Voyager has shown us that Earth is not really alone. Around our parent Sun orbit sibling worlds, companions as we travel through the Galaxy.

Dan Durda

In 2002, The Planetary Society awarded $28,290 (US) worth of grants to an international group of researchers in support of near-Earth asteroid detection and characterization efforts.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla reports on her expedition to Devon Island, where The Planetary Society is taking steps toward the goal of humans and robots working together to explore Mars.

Emily Lakdawalla

Haughton Crater measures about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) in diameter, and was formed 23 million years ago when either an asteroid or a comet collided with our planet.

Amir Alexander

If we were to listen to radio transmissions from space, we should be able to hear the dying gasps of black holes. As it turns out, we are listening, or at least the SETI@home receiver is. Perched above the giant Arecibo dish, it is systematically surveying a large portion of the sky, listening to the signals coming from space.

Bruce Betts

I just wanted to express my appreciation again to The Planetary Society for the Shoemaker Grant. Apogee Instruments delivered the AP6Ep purchased with the grant on 9 March 2001. Critical mass on all of the other components associated with implementing the proposal was reached last week.

Dan Durda

In 2000, The Planetary Society awarded $33,700 (US) worth of grants to an international group of researchers in support of near-Earth asteroid detection and characterization efforts.

Charlene Anderson

From the Editor: Mars has definitely been the planet in the news these past two months, and two events have triggered larger-than-normal reverberations in the Society. First, on November 22, Gerald Soffen died. Then, on December 4, while we were wrapping up this issue, Mike Malin and Ken Edgett announced their latest news-making discovery -- this time of sedimentary layers on the Martian surface.

The Planetary Society's Mars Microphone is on board the Mars Polar Lander, and as far as we can tell, in good shape.

Dan Durda

In 1999, The Planetary Society awarded $28,000 (US) to an international group of researchers in support of near-Earth asteroid detection and characterization efforts.

The Mars Microphone has successfully gone through its latest round of testing in preparation for launch on the Mars Surveyor spacecraft in January 1999.

Dan Durda

In 1997, The Planetary Society awarded $35,000 (US) to an international group of researchers in support of near-Earth asteroid detection and characterization efforts.

Andrew Chaikin

Apollo gave us our money's worth. The Apollo lunar samples, totaling 381 kilograms (838 pounds), along with thousands of photographs and other data, are still yielding clues to the world that has been our Rosetta stone for deciphering planetary evolution.

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan writes that once upon a time, we soared into the solar system. For a few years. Then we hurried back. Why? What happened? What was Apollo really about?

Charlene Anderson

Two robotic rovers reached the surface of Mars in 1971 during the Soviet Mars 2 and 3 missions.

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan's argument for planetary exploration. Published in the first issue of The Planetary Report magazine.