My time as CEO has been fantastic. Once I was requested to tackle that function, I didn’t really feel particularly certified. Oh, certain, I had held management roles earlier than. And I had been a producer, host, and head author of a children’ present. However none of those positions was fairly the identical as operating the world’s largest impartial house curiosity society. However the board had religion in me, and so I had religion I may do it. And right here we’re, 15 years on.
Over these years, I got here to grasp that we now have an opportunity to vary the world. Like hundreds of thousands of individuals, I used to be impressed by the imaginative and prescient of our founders. Carl Sagan, Louis Friedman, and Bruce Murray may state the rationale The Planetary Society exists with readability. I hear Bruce’s phrases daily: “There are two questions all of us ask: The place did we come from? And are we alone within the Cosmos?” These are the massive concepts that each human on Earth has contemplated at a while of their life.
Together with the 2 massive questions, there are three issues which have perpetually motivated me. I wish to discover different worlds as a result of we don’t know what we’re going to seek out. Ice on the Moon’s south pole? Microbes underneath the sands of Mars? Aquatic creatures swimming round underneath the ice on Europa? One thing extraordinary within the plumes shot into house by the jostling of the icy crust of Enceladus? The thoughts boggles.
The subsequent factor: I don’t need Earth to get hit with a critically sizable asteroid. I like to inform each member of Congress and each member of their employees that an asteroid influence is the one preventable pure catastrophe. Such is just not the case with an earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, or tornado. If it’s an asteroid, with planning and worldwide cooperation, we may do one thing.
The third factor that has stored me going and can maintain going so long as I stay: I wish to discover proof of life — higher but, one thing nonetheless alive on the market within the Cosmos. I referred to prospects on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. What about Titan? Or the cool clouds within the Venusian environment? What about an exoplanet? A discovery of life would, dare I say it, change the world. Everybody on Earth would really feel one thing profound — one thing new, unusual, and vital about being alive within the Cosmos.
I’ve been immensely proud to guide a company that pursues the solutions to those questions. And underneath Jennifer Vaughn’s management, we’ll maintain constructing on our successes. We’re going to proceed to spend money on all of our science and expertise packages. We’re going to proceed to develop and broaden our instructional outreach efforts. And we’re going to maintain displaying up within the U.S. Congress each in particular person and thru emails, letter-writing campaigns, and petitions. With the assistance of our members and supporters, we’re going to maintain up the stress to guard NASA’s science packages, and we’re going to maintain advocating for worldwide cooperation within the scientific exploration of house. No different group in house science advocacy matches our attain, our credibility, or our influence.
This has really been the consideration of a lifetime.
