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browse projects: Apophis Mission Design Competition Asteroids - The Potential Threat Carl Sagan Fund for the Future Catalog of Exoplanets FINDS Exo-Earths International Year of Astronomy LIFE Experiment: Phobos LightSail - Solar Sailing Mars Climate Sounder Team Website Messages from Earth Microrovers Mirror Bees: Planetary Defense Observing Earth Pioneer Anomaly Planetary Microphones SETI Optical Telescope SETI Radio Searches SETI@home Shoemaker NEO Grants Space Advocacy Space Information Stardust@home

browse space topics: 2001 Mars Odyssey Akatsuki (Venus Climate Orbiter / PLANET-C) Asteroids and Comets Cassini-Huygens Chandra X-Ray Observatory Chandrayaan-1 Chang'e 1 Compare the Planets Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) Dawn Deep Impact Earth Extrasolar Planets Genesis Hayabusa (MUSES-C) Hubble Space Telescope IKAROS Jupiter Kaguya (SELENE) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Mars Mars Exploration Rovers Mars Express Mars Global Surveyor Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mercury MESSENGER Moon Near Earth Objects Neptune New Horizons Past Missions Phoenix Planetary Analogs Planetary Exploration Timelines Pluto and Charon Private Missions Rosetta Saturn Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SMART-1 SOHO Space Imaging Spitzer Space Telescope Stardust Trans-Neptunian Objects Ulysses Uranus Venus Venus Express Voyager Weekly Planetary Radio Trivia Contest WISE

Past Projects

Planetary Society projects connect the world’s public with real space exploration and discovery. We’ve had great past successes, such as our work aiding the search for Vulcanoids, our Red Rover Goes to Mars project giving students the opportunity to work directly with space missions, our expeditions to study the crater left by an asteroid or comet that hit 65 million years ago, and our Aim for Mars! Campaign to help advance human exploration of Mars. We look back at these past projects with pride while we continue to look for ways to involve the public in the greatest adventure of our time.

		Aim for Mars In the summer of 2004 The Planetary Society launched Aim for Mars, a campaign to encourage and support a human mission to Mars. Aim for Mars included a letter-writing campaign, Congressional testimonies by Society officers, and groundbreaking studies demonstrating how a Mars mission can be accomplished within a realistic budget. Read here about The Planetary Society's multi-faceted campaign to send humans to the Red Planet. The Planetary Society is going all-out to turn the Moon... More Information
		Asteroid Impact Mapping System Project Homepage Nearly three decades ago, when The Planetary Society first began supporting the investigation of near-Earth objects -- those vast swarms of asteroids and comets silently orbiting around our Sun -- we were pioneers in what much of the space community considered a "scientific backwater." Not any more. Today, investigation of NEOs is recognized as urgent by virtually the entire scientific community. Yet -- despite that -- research lags, and there is still... More Information
		Drive a Mars Rover Mars Stations are designed to give everyone the experience of exploring an unknown world through the eyes of a robotic rover. The Planetary Society and LEGO Company have teamed together to establish a network of Mars Stations around the world. Each station contains a LEGO® rover equipped with a Web camera that you can drive over the Internet! We invite you to connect to and drive the rovers at the Stations listed below. Most Stations will be operating most of the time, but do... More Information
		EarthDials The EarthDial Project was a partnership between The Planetary Society; Bill Nye, the Science Guy; and Woody Sullivan, a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, designed to capture interest in the motion of the Sun across the skies of Earth and Mars. EarthDials were an international network of Webcam-equipped sundials. All EarthDials shared a basic design that was intended to remind us of the More Information
		Europa Mission Campaign There may be life out there beyond our pale blue planet...life with no connection to us, life with an ancient history of its own, life that -- if discovered -- would rewrite natural history as we know it. That life may even be right here in our solar system. Close enough for us to reach, to examine, to awe us, to view in its natural environment, and to give our science a massive push forward. We are speaking of the tantalizing Jovian moon Europa. In a solar system full... More Information
		Extrasolar Planets Transit Search The Planetary Society is supporting an exciting project to detect Extra Solar Planets from a robotically controlled telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona. This project will use the so-called transit method, to try to detect slight drop in starlight that occurs when a planet crosses in front of the star. The Planetary Society is sponsoring the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in this endeavor, supporting their membership in a consortium of organizations working to refurbish the... More Information
		International Lunar Decade This is an extraordinary time for lunar exploration. In June 2009 the United States launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), joining recent lunar missions from India, China, and Japan. Italy and Europe recently completed the successful More Information
		MarsDials The Mars Exploration Rovers each carry an identical sundial, approximately three inches square. Space artist Jon Lomberg (a Planetary Society Advisor) designed the face of the MarsDial, and Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society, coined the MarsDial's motto: Two Worlds, One Sun. Their primary function is as calibration targets for the... More Information
		NEO Earth Expeditions 65 million years ago, a comet or asteroid slammed into Earth, near the Yucatan Peninsula, ending the Cretaceous Period of the dinosaurs and changing the course of life on our planet. The crater, more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter, is located in the northwestern Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and has been named Chicxulub, "the devil's tail," in the local Mayan dialect. The Planetary Society sponsors geologic expeditions to Belize and Mexico to study this impact crater in... More Information
		Pluto Campaign The Bush Administration cancelled it twice, NASA claimed its budget couldn't cover it and Congress earmarked funds to be cut in mid-development; yet the trail-blazing New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission has survived. This is no doubt due in part to the relentless public campaigning led by The Planetary Society. New Horizons is a probe that will fly by More Information
		Red Rover Goes to Mars The Red Rover Goes to Mars project was a path-breaking partnership between an advocacy organization, The Planetary Society; a government agency, NASA; and a privately held company, the LEGO Company. The project ran from 2000 to 2004 and provided hands-on opportunities for students around the world to participate directly in real missions to Mars. Where are they now? Read updates from the Red Rover Goes to Mars students, gathered in December 2008. More Information
		Red Rover, Red Rover The Red Rover, Red Rover project opens the world of space exploration to children. Using LEGO® Red Rover, Red Rover kits, students design and build their own Mars Rovers, guiding them from a computer across a simulated Mars terrain that they research and construct themselves. Then they can connect to a Rover built by students at a different school next door -- or across the world -- and use it to explore a completely new environment, just as scientists explore the strange surface of... More Information
		S.O.S: Save Our Science! Campaign Updates Press Campaign Background Spread the Word NASA's acclaimed Science Program -- the "crown jewel" of the U.S. space... More Information
		Save Voyager and Hubble On October 31, 2006, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin decided to send the space shuttle Discovery to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, reversing a decision made by his predecessor, Sean O'Keefe. This is a tremendous victory for Planetary Society members -- and for the millions around the world who rose up in protest at the unbelievable decision to let Hubble die. Some 10,000 Planetary Society members... More Information
		Visions of Mars THE PHOENIX HAS LANDED The Phoenix spacecraft, -- carrying Visions of Mars and 250,000 names -- has touched down on the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008, at 23:38:32 UTC (16:38:32 PDT). The solar panels have subsequently deployed, providing the spacecraft full power for operations. Follow the mission at The Planetary Society's blog. Phoenix Carries First Martian Library and 250,000 Names. More Information
		Vulcanoids Vulcanoids are small, rocky bodies that circle the Sun in stable orbits inside the orbit of Mercury -- at least that's what they would probably look like if any astronomer had ever seen one. Being small, faint objects, orbiting in the immediate vicinity of the Sun, Vulcanoids are easily lost in the blinding solar glare and cannot be viewed with ordinary Earth-based telescopes. They have proven to be some of the most elusive objects in the solar system, foiling every attempt to observe them. More Information