As the dust settles on a tumultuous fiscal year for planetary exploration, we can take comfort that our successes in 2013 are permanent and begin building our coalition for the upcoming year.
The opportunity presented to us here is rare. A well-organized and active core of committed individuals like yourself have the potential to exert great influence over the future of space exploration, but only if we all stay involved.
To that end, it is imperative that we are well-informed. So this is the first newsletter in a periodic series that will help keep you up-to-date on the latest issues, challenges, and Society activities relevant to the future of planetary exploration. This information will help you be ready to act when the time is right.
I'm always eager to hear your thoughts about the future of space exploration. And if you know a friend, family member, or colleague who can help, make sure to invite them to contact Congress (or the White House if they live overseas) and share their support for planetary exploration. We need all the people we can muster.
We end this fiscal year with more funding for planetary exploration than anyone expected. Next year looks tough, but we face it together as part of a new planetary coalition.
Thank you for your help. Let's get out there.
Casey Dreier Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator The Planetary Society
As a consequence of your letters and intense lobbying efforts by the Planetary Society, both the Senate and the House are separately moving forward with bills that provide $100 million more to NASA's Planetary Science Division than requested by the White House.
But it's not enough. We firmly believe that $1.5 billion per year is required for NASA to explore Europa and build the next Mars rover in 2020, as well as launch numerous targeted missions around the solar system. Even with these restored funds, we're still $200 million short.
We're busy sorting the thousands of hand-signed petitions for delivery to Congress that demand the restoration of planetary exploration. These were included in the physical letter we sent you back in May. If you signed one, thank you.
Our CEO Bill Nye will hand-deliver these letters later this year.
NASA faces a harsh budgetary future in the House of Representatives. The current funding bill for 2014 (the same one that restores $100 million to planetary exploration) limits NASA's total budget to $16.6 billion. Adjusted for inflation, NASA hasn't seen this number since the mid-1980s. The Senate has proposed to fund NASA at $18.1 billion for 2014, a much better number for the agency.
Members of the Planetary Society put in years of effort, sending tens-of-thousands of letters to Congress and the White House to convince them to fund a mission to Pluto. Now, less than two years before New Horizons has its close encounter with the dwarf planet, we look back to appreciate one of the most successful mission campaigns in our history.
The industry paper SpaceNews featured the Planetary Society as an organization that's actively making a difference on Capitol Hill, saying that "one administration official privately credited planetary science advocates as the best organized interest group in the NASA science community. That's high, if grudging, praise in Washington circles."
You can read the whole thing. We take great pride in this achievement, but it entirely depends on you and the tens-of-thousands of other advocates who wrote to Congress and the White House on behalf of planetary science.