An Eventful 2012

The Society hosted many great events in 2012, come take a look back with us

Posted By Casey Dreier

2012/12/31 04:53 CST

Topics: best of, fun, Planetary Society, Bill Nye, Planetary Radio, Planetary Society Events

I'm writing this in the final few hours of 2012 (here on the west coast of the U.S., anyway). As a general rule, we here at the Planetary Society prefer to look forward, but there was one area in which I wanted to reflect on for a moment.

2012 was a year in which the Planetary Society threw a great number of events for members and the general public. A large number of them were hosted at KPCC's Crawford Family Forum here in Pasadena, which provides us a great space with great logistical support.

We streamed (or tried to!) as many of these as we could, something we'll continue with next year.

This was a big step up in activity for us. Every year we have a Planetfest is big enough, but within a month we were already working on our Voyager 35th Anniversary show, and numerous others. Planetary Radio went out and recorded live shows all over the country, as well.

Here are some of the highlights of our events from 2012.

	Planetfest 2012 The big daddy of all of our events. Planetfest 2012 brought together over 3000 people from around the world to the Pasadena Convention Center to celebrate the landing of the Curiosity rover on August 5th. We had an all-star lineup of speakers including scientists, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and the NASA Administrator. Best of all, we were all witness to the safe landing of the most complicated rover ever made. You can watch almost all of Planetfest on our YouTube channel. or hear the highlights on the following episodes of Planetary Radio: Planetary Radio Live at Planetfest 2012 More from Planetfest 2012 with Andrew Chaikin and Scott Hubbard
	Voyager's 35th Birthday We checked in with arguably the most successful robotic mission of all time. The twin Voyager spacecraft completed their 35th year of their mission in 2012. We spoke to the project scientist, Ed Stone, and enjoyed a dramatic reading of Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" by Robert Picardo. You can watch our 35th-anniversary tribute to Voyager here or via the following episode of Planetary Radio: Celebrating 35 Years of the Voyager Mission
	Carl Sagan Day We honored our founder Carl Sagan with a tribute on what would have been his 78th birthday. Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan interviewed friends Lou Friedman, Kip Thorne, and Lynda Obst. We also met young scientists inspired by Sagan and enjoyed clips from Cosmos. Guests also witnessed and participated in the very first "Sagan Slam" at our afterparty – an open-mic night where the motivated individuals read their favorite passages from Sagan's books or spoke about how they were influenced by his work. You can watch the entire show on YouTube or via the following episode of Planetary Radio: Celebrating Carl Sagan
	Planetary Radio LIVE Mat Kaplan, host of Planetary Radio, recorded numerous shows in front of a live audience around the country. The following episodes of Planetary Radio were recorded in front of a live audience: Carl Sagan Day Tribute (Pasadena, CA) Celebrating the MSL Curiosity rover with John Grotzinger and Richard Cook, part 1(Pasadena, CA) Celebrating the MSL Curiosity rover with John Grotzinger and Richard Cook, part 2 (Pasadena, CA) Live at the National Air and Space Museum, part 1 (Washington, D.C.) Live at the National Air and Space Museum, part 2 (Washington, D.C.) Live at the Aquarium of the Pacific, part 1 (Long Beach, CA) Live at the Aquarium of the Pacific, part 2 (Long Beach, CA) Live at PATS talking asteroids and OSIRIS-REx (Pasadena, CA)

Throughout the year, we also had our intrepid volunteers represent the Society at a variety of events, special members-only talks in Washington, D.C., participation in the cARTel Science and Art Party in Los Angeles, and more.

We love doing events, and we'll continue to organize them in 2013. We hope to see you there.