The Planetary Report is the internationally recognized flagship magazine of The Planetary Society, featuring lively articles and full-color photos to provide comprehensive coverage of discoveries on Earth and other planets.
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This Month in the Planetary Report
Volume XXVIII Number 4 Jul / Aug 2008
From The Editor
We were buoyant, exhilarated -- and back on Mars after 21 years. At Planetfest '97, I was waiting at the Pasadena Center for Project Manager Tony Spear to arrive and address the thousands who had gathered to watch Mars Pathfinder touch down. We'd seen the live feed from JPL and already had cheered the spacecraft's safe arrival.
But our celebrating wasn't over. It's a tradition for Project Managers to come to Planetfest for their rock-star moment to accept the cheers of the multitude, and Tony was due at any minute. Through the dense crowd, friends on the mission team kept swirling by, telling me to make sure I was there when Tony was ready to speak.
Then there he was, raising his arms in a victory salute. When the noise died down, Tony stood behind the lectern and announced that he had a surprise for us all.
We were up for a surprise -- as long as it was a good one. We were still smarting from the loss of Mars '96, which had carried our Visions of Mars CD -- and a microdot with the names of all Planetary Society members -- straight to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Now Tony was telling us that the Pathfinder team had gotten a duplicate microdot and affixed it to their spacecraft. To thank Planetary Society members for their ceaseless support, they had taken us all to Mars.
Cheers mixed equally with tears as the audience rose to their feet with applause, and no one there will ever forget that return to the Red Planet. And we're back again. When Phoenix touched down this last May, Planetary Society members landed with it -- and Visions of Mars finally made it.
These moments are part of our Messages from Earth project that has sent our members to Mars, to Comet Tempel 1, to Saturn, onward to Pluto, and soon, back to the Moon. Aren't you proud to have traveled with them?
—Charlene M. Anderson
Features
Phoenix: Success in the Martian Arctic by Bruce Betts
Out of this World Books
MESSENGER Arrives at Mercury by Ralph L. McNutt, Jr. and Sean C. Solomon
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