California SuperGraphic

Planetary Society & the Mars Rover

The Planetary Society, based in Pasadena, California, is the largest (more than 100,000 members in more than 100 countries and growing) and most influential space-interest organization in the world. Founded by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman in 1980, the society seeks to achieve its ambitious goals of exploring the solar system, continuing the search for extraterrestrial life and promoting vigorous civilian space programs that will make possible a human future on other planets. The Planetary Society also creates ways for the public to have active roles in space exploration. They have developed innovative technologies, such as the first solar-sail spacecraft (a spacecraft without an engine). Because a solar-sail spacecraft carries no fuel, in theory, it should be able to continue accelerating over long distances, one day allowing us to visit stars.

The Mars Pathfinder was launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA. After a seven-month voyage, the spacecraft landed on the Chryse Planitia region of Mars on July 4, 1997, making it the first successful mission to send a rover to a planet. After reaching Mars, the lander opened, exposing the Sojourner rover that executed experiments on the Martian surface. The Sojourner mission analyzed Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of rocks and soil.

Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan’s vision and contributions to Mars exploration were honored when, on July 5, 1997, NASA renamed the unmanned Mars Pathfinder the Carl Sagan Memorial Station. The station also pays tribute to Sagan’s work with the Planetary Society, since it has a microchip containing the names of 100,000 society members, which the Society created with cooperation of the JPL Microdevices Laboratory.