Our Projects
What We Do
The Planetary Society creates ways for the public to have active roles in space exploration. Engaging citizen scientists through our projects and citizen science activities, we aim to foster a scientifically literate populace, one in which every citizen knows and appreciates other worlds as well as this one. We develop innovative technologies, like the first solar sail spacecraft, we fund astronomers hunting for hazardous asteroids and planets orbiting other stars, we support radio and optical searches for extraterrestrial life, and we influence decision makers, ensuring the future of space exploration.
Featured Projects
Shoemaker Near-Earth Object Grant Program
Planetary Society's Shoemaker Grant program supports astronomers following up potentially hazardous asteroids.
The Planetary Society had teamed up with planet hunters Debra Fischer of Yale University and Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley to help with the quest to find other "Earths," other worlds like our own, elsewhere in our galaxy.
What do we do if an asteroid is found to be on a collision course with Earth? At this point, the answer is not clear, so The Planetary Society has partnered with researchers to discover ways to protect Earth when we one-day find a dangerous space rock.
We are going to merge the ultra-light technology of nanosats with the ultra-large technology of solar sails in an audacious new program-- setting a course to the stars”
Microrovers for Assisting Humans
NASA and other countries have studied large rovers designed to carry humans, medium-sized robotic rovers like those used now on Mars, and even a low-gravity "nano?rover," but there is a largely unstudied niche of microrovers, which we loosely define as rovers with masses of one to a few kilograms. Even less studied is how they might work with humans on the Moon, Mars, or other bodies.
At the core of our explorations is the quest to know if life exists beyond Earth. The Planetary Society is a leader in the search for life on other worlds, whether intelligent or microbial. Our active projects: SETI Optical Telescope - Looking for laser signals beamed across the vastness of space. SETI Radio Searches - Huge radio dishes sift through nature's random noise for beacons from other civilizations.
The Planetary Society is an education outreach partner on Mars Climate Sounder and is proud to be a part of this next phase of Mars exploration. Mars Climate Sounder, one of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's six science instruments, is performing a detailed, systematic study of Mars' weather and climate.
Something strange was happening in the outer reaches of our solar system. The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft were not where they were supposed to be. The mystery of the Pioneer Anomaly has been solved The recovery of Doppler and telemetry data and the entire effort in thermal analysis would not have happened without the Planetary Society.
The Planetary Society developed the two-phase LIFE – Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment – to investigate the transpermia hypothesis, the idea that a living organism might survive a journey through space to Earth inside a meteorite.
We have accomplished a lot in the past 30-plus years. Here are more of the exciting space exploration projects made possible by the generous support of you -- our members and supporters.
Support our Asteroid Hunters
They are Watching the Skies for You!
Our researchers, worldwide, do absolutely critical work.
Asteroid 2012DA14 was a close one.
It missed us. But there are more out there.
Save Our Science
Become a Space Advocate
We are at a crucial turning point in the history of planetary exploration.
You can help.
Together, we can get the budget we need to support our planetary endeavors and Save our Science.
We've done it before. Let's do it again.
Connect With Us
Facebook! Twitter! Google+ and more…
Continue the conversation with our online community!
