I have received the Planetary Report and other publications from the Planetary Society from the very beginning. The magazine, published six times per year, has always been a high-quality, interesting piece. It is a slick-and-glossy magazine filled with full-colour photographs, which in days prior to the internet, were often only accessible through very expensive books with colour plates. Even today with lots of access to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other space-related sites, the Planetary Report still never ceases to amaze me with their collection of photographs.
The writing is almost always done by professional astronomers and other scientists in related fields who have expertise in both the space sciences and in writing (the two skills do not always go together) making this an accessible periodical; it is not overly technical but is also not dumbed-down -- when I took astronomy courses in college, I was gratified to learn that my instructors and professors all read the Planetary Report on a regular basis.
I still have a great love for astronomy, and was excited by the recent Mars missions, and look forward to humanity continuing to reach for the planets with spacecraft, and looking beyond the confines of our solar system with space-based telescopes and earth-based viewers.
This publication is in aid of the Planetary Society, an organisation dedicated to research, education and public support for space sciences. The solar sail project is a good example, but so is their efforts to keep space high in the mind of the public, particularly school children, from whom the astronauts and scientists of the future come. Purchasing a subscription to this magazine actually gives one membership in the Planetary Society, a great organisation with a great mission.
The magazine itself runs around 20 or 30 pages per issue with lots of gorgeous color photographs. One of my favorite issues from 2003 was the September/October retrospective of the "Glorious Galileo" mission. The Planetary Society asked the scientists who were involved in the Galileo mission to choose "Galileo's Greatest Hits," and the resulting article and photographs (not always in the visible light spectrum) are quite illuminating. My own favorite is the picture and article about the ice rafts on Europa.
"We Make It Happen!" is a regular feature of the magazine. Planetary Society members are working on several space-related projects, including an attempt to fly the world's first solar sail. They plan to use a converted Russian submarine-launched ballistic missile to launch Cosmos 1, the solar sail payload. You may have seen a model of the Planetary Society's solar sail blade at the Centennial of Flight Exhibition at Rockefeller Center. The most likely launch date for Cosmos 1, is listed on the Planetary Society's website as "sometime in 2004."
If you are looking for a way to actively support our long and winding path to outer space, join The Planetary Society. There's still time to become a supporter of our Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Mission!
