The Planetary Society
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The Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, and space exploration. It was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and has about 60,000 members from more than 100 countries around the world. The Society is dedicated to the exploration of the Solar System, the search for near-Earth objects, and the search for extraterrestrial life. The society's mission is stated as: "Empowering the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration." The Planetary Society is a strong advocate for space funding and missions of exploration within NASA. They lobby Congress and engage their membership in the United States to write and call their representatives in support of NASA funding. In addition to public outreach, The Planetary Society has sponsored solar sai ...
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Non-governmental
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus on humanitarian or social issues but can also include clubs and associations offering services to members. Some NGOs, like the World Economic Forum, may also act as lobby groups for corporations. Unlike international organizations (IOs), which directly interact with sovereign states and governments, NGOs are independent from them. The term as it is used today was first introduced in Article 71 of the UN Charter, Article 71 of the newly formed United Nations Charter in 1945. While there is no fixed or formal definition for what NGOs are, they are generally defined as nonprofit entities that are independent of governmental influence—although they may receive government funding. According to the United Nations Department of Global Communic ...
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Exploration Of The Solar System
Discovery and exploration of the Solar System is observation, visitation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of Earth's "cosmic neighborhood". This includes the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the major planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, their satellites, as well as smaller bodies including comets, asteroids, and dust. In ancient and medieval times, only objects visible to the naked eye—the Sun, the Moon, the five classical planets, and comets, along with phenomena now known to take place in Earth's atmosphere, like meteors and aurorae—were known. Ancient astronomers were able to make geometric observations with various instruments. The collection of precise observations in the early modern period and the invention of the telescope helped determine the overall structure of the Solar System. Telescopic observations resulted in the discovery of moons and rings around planets, and new planets, comets and the asteroids; the recognition of plan ...
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Phobos (moon)
Phobos (; astronomical naming conventions, systematic designation: ) is the innermost and larger of the two moons of Mars, natural satellites of Mars, the other being Deimos (moon), Deimos. The two moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Phobos is named after Phobos (mythology), the Greek god of fear and panic, who is the son of Ares (Mars) and twin brother of Deimos (deity), Deimos. Phobos is a small, irregularly shaped object with a mean radius of . It orbits from the Martian surface, closer to its Primary (astronomy), primary body than any other known natural satellite to a planet. It orbits Mars much faster than Mars rotates and completes an orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. As a result, from the surface of Mars it appears to rise in the west, move across the sky in 4 hours and 15 minutes or less, and set in the east, twice each Mars sol, Martian day. Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System, with an albedo of 0.071. Su ...
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Fobos-Grunt
Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt () was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos (moon), Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 and the tiny Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment funded by the Planetary Society. It was launched on 8 November 2011, at 20:16 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit. Efforts to reactivate the craft were unsuccessful, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled Atmospheric entry, re-entry on 15 January 2012, over the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile. The return vehicle was to have returned to Earth in August 2014, carrying up to of soil from Phobos. Funded by the Russian Federal Space Agency and developed by Lavochkin and the Russian Space Research Institute, Fobos-Grunt was the first Russian-led interplanetary mission since the failed Mars 96. T ...
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Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105) is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational Space Shuttle, Shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission, STS-134, in May 2011. STS-134 was expected to be the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but with the authorization of STS-135 by the United States Congress, Space Shuttle Atlantis, ''Atlantis'' became the last shuttle to fly. The United States Congress approved the construction of ''Endeavour'' in 1987 to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'', which was Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, destroyed in 1986. NASA chose, on cost grounds, to build much of ''Endeavour'' from spare parts rather than refitting the Space Shuttle Enterprise, Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'', and used structural spares built during the construction of ''Space Shuttle Discovery, Di ...
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STS-134
STS-134 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF6) was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander. STS-134 was expected to be the final Space Shuttle mission if STS-135 did not receive funding from United States Congress, Congress. However, in February 2011, NASA stated that STS-135 would fly "regardless" of the funding situation.STS-134 Mission Status
Spaceflight Now.
STS-135, flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, ''Atlantis'', took advantage of the processing for STS-3xx#STS-335, STS-335, the Launch on Need mission that would have been necessary if the STS-134 crew became stranded in orbit. Change ...
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Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
The Living Interplanetary Flight ExperimentAsian Scientist"Phobos-Grunt Mission Carrying Yinghuo-1 Space Probe Suffers Technical Glitch" Srinivas Laxman, 9 November 2011 (LIFE or Phobos LIFE) was an interplanetary mission developed by the Planetary Society. It consisted of sending selected microorganisms on a three-year interplanetary round-trip in a small capsule aboard the Russian Fobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2011, which was a failed sample-return mission to the Martian moon Phobos. The Fobos-Grunt mission failed to leave Earth orbitUniverse Today"Russian Space Program Prepares for Phobos-Grunt Re-Entry" David Warmflash, 13 December 2011 and was destroyed. The goal was to test whether selected organisms can survive an undetermined number of years in deep space by flying them through interplanetary space. The experiment would have tested one aspect of panspermia, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to lan ...
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LightSail-1
LightSail is a project to demonstrate controlled solar sailing within low Earth orbit using a CubeSat. The project was developed by The Planetary Society, a global non-profit organization devoted to space exploration. It consists of two spacecraft — LightSail 1 and LightSail 2. LightSail 1 was an engineering demonstration mission designed to test its new sail deployment method in space, it did not perform solar sailing. LightSail 2 was a fully functional spacecraft intended to demonstrate true solar sailing and incorporated the lessons learned from LightSail 1. LightSail is a follow-on project to ''Cosmos 1'' — a solar-sail spacecraft designed by The Planetary Society in the early 2000s, which was destroyed during a launch failure in 2005. Both LightSail spacecraft measured (3U CubeSat) in their stowed configuration. After sail deployment, the total area of each spacecraft was . History In 2005, The Planetary Society attempted to send a solar sail satellite named ''Cosmo ...
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Wired (magazine)
''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in publication since its launch in January 1993. Its editorial office is based in San Francisco, California, with its business headquarters located in New York City. ''Wired'' quickly became recognized as the voice of the emerging digital economy and culture and a pace setter in print design and web design. From 1998 until 2006, the magazine and its website, ''Wired.com'', experienced separate ownership before being fully consolidated under Condé Nast in 2006. It has won multiple National Magazine Awards and has been credited with shaping discourse around the digital revolution. The magazine also coined the term Crowdsourcing, ''crowdsourcing'', as well as its annual tradition of handing out Vaporware Awards. ''Wired'' has launched several in ...
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Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television station, television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owned by Fox Corporation. It is the most-watched cable news network in the U.S., and as of 2023 it generates approximately 70% of its parent company's pre-tax profit. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Fox News provides a service to 86 countries and territories, with international broadcasts featuring Fox Extra segments during advertising breaks. The channel was created by Australian-born American media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1996 to appeal to a conservative audience, hiring former Republican Party (United States), Republican media consultant and CNBC executive Roger ...
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Cosmos 1
Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an uncrewed solar-sail spacecraft named ''Cosmos 1'' was launched into space at 19:46:09 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC (15:46:09 Eastern Daylight Time, EDT) on 21 June 2005 from the submarine in the Barents Sea. However, a rocket failure prevented the spacecraft from reaching its intended orbit. Once in orbit, the spacecraft was supposed to deploy a large sail, upon which photons from the Sun would Radiation pressure, push, thereby increasing the spacecraft's velocity (the contributions from the solar wind are similar, but of much smaller magnitude). Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first ever orbital use of a solar sail to speed up a spacecraft, as well as the first space mission by a space advocacy, space advocacy group. The project budget was US$4 million. The Planetary Society planned to raise another US$4 million for ''Cosmos 2 ...
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Solar Sail
Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigation have been proposed since the 1980s. The two spacecraft to successfully use the technology for propulsion were IKAROS, launched in 2010, and LightSail-2, launched in 2019. A useful analogy to solar sailing may be a sailing boat; the light exerting a force on the large surface is akin to a sail being blown by the wind. High-energy laser beams could be used as an alternative light source to exert much greater force than would be possible using sunlight, a concept known as beam sailing. Solar sail craft offer the possibility of low-cost operations combined with high speeds (relative to chemical rockets) and long operating lifetimes. Since they have few moving parts and use no propellant, they can potentially be used numerous times for ...
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