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Bruce Betts
Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager, The Planetary Society
+1-626-793-5100
Dr. Bruce Betts is Chief Scientist and LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest group. Dr. Betts is a planetary scientist who earned a B.S. in physics and math and an M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science with a minor in Geology from Caltech. He spent several years with San Juan Institute/Planetary Science Institute as a Research Scientist, and later Senior Research Scientist. He studied planetary surfaces, including Mars, the Moon, and Jupiter’s moons, using infrared and other data, and published several scientific papers on these subjects. Dr. Betts spent three years at NASA headquarters managing planetary instrument development programs to design spacecraft science instruments.
At The Planetary Society, he has had copious project management experience, having managed a number of flight instrument (both science and public outreach) projects, including silica glass DVDs on the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander carrying millions of names and Mars literature, the LIFE biology experiment that flew on the Russian Phobos sample return mission, and he led a NASA grant studying microrovers assisting human exploration. He is the Program Manager for The Planetary Society’s LightSail solar sail missions. He has also overseen or managed a number of additional projects designed to excite and involve the public in space exploration.
Dr. Betts is the author of Astronomy for Kids: How to Explore Outer Space with Binoculars, a Telescope, or Just Your Eyes! He regularly writes for The Planetary Society member magazine The Planetary Report, and on his blog on planetary.org. His twitter feed @RandomSpaceFact provides easy night sky astronomy and random space facts, and his Random Space Fact videos provide facts and humor in brief segments. He also co-hosts the "What's Up?" feature on the weekly Planetary Radio show (150 radio stations, XM/Sirius satellite radio, and podcast). He is a frequent guest on History Channel’s The Universe. Dr. Betts is an Adjunct Professor with California State University Dominguez Hills and his most recent Introduction to Astronomy and Planetary Science course is available for free online. He is an Alumnus Senior Scientist with Planetary Science Institute
Latest Articles
Meet the latest round of winners in The Planetary Society's Shoemaker Near-Earth Object (NEO) grant program, which funds astronomers around the world in their efforts to find, track, and characterize near-Earth asteroids.
The two winning proposals in the 2023 round of STEP grants are a project that will compare different methods of growing edible plants in simulated deep-space exploration conditions, and a project that will study salty lakes on Earth that share characteristics with the past and present oceans of other planets and moons.
After 3.5 years, 18,000 orbits of the Earth, and 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) traveled, The Planetary Society’s successful LightSail 2 solar sail spacecraft will burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere in the next few days.
Latest Planetary Radio Appearances
Dava Sobel receives The Planetary Society’s Cosmos Award for her extraordinary storytelling about science and discovery. We celebrate her work, hear from Bill Nye, and share updates on space policy and science communication.
Space journalist Sarah Cruddas shares her journey from astrophysics to storytelling, exploring how journalism can make space exploration more accessible and meaningful.
The Fiscal Year 2026 congressional budget justification for NASA could mark the beginning of a dark age for NASA science. We examine what’s at stake and how you can help advocate for NASA’s future.