In article ,
Terrell Miller wrote:
okay, my head is spinning here. Twenty years ago when I was a member, the PS
(or more specifically, Carl Sagan) was hell-bent and determined to keep
humanity's dirty little bootprints off of the universe.
What's happened in the meantime...?

Chairman Carl had a new revelation, and decided that a joint US-Soviet
Mars mission was the way to reduce world tensions and save mankind from
itself (or at least, it was a step in the right direction). So now the
Planetary Society was officially in favor of manned Mars exploration,
except that it *had* to be a US-Soviet joint effort -- no other approaches
need apply.

A few of the keep-space-for-robots folks left in disgust, but most of the
faithful stayed.

And that official goal in turn has mutated gradually, as mankind turned
out not to need saving (this time, anyway), and as the "joint effort" part
has stopped looking like such a great idea.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |